The Story of a Past Scarlet
by WillieG.R
Summary: A back story for the Scarlet Devil Mansion.  Their lives destroyed, Remilia flees her former home along with her sister, in hopes to live a peaceful life in Gensokyo.  Please Review/Comment
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

**This back story fiction I am writing does not connect to my Sukima series at all, EXCEPT for the very beginning, and the very end, which, in terms of timeline, should take place right before and after Sakuya is attacked by the vampires (Paradise Sukima Chapters 7 and 8) Other than that, this story stands on its own. It also contains bloody events, so if you don't like anything that has to do with blood, hit that back button. Note that although I tried to make this story as close as possible to ZUN's info, there are still things that ARE NOT clear about the story, so I will have to, and will add a few things from myself, so you may disregard this story if you like. It's just for entertainment after all. Also, I would kindly ask you to leave a comment/review, as it is important for me to know how I am doing with this. There is little, to no comedy in these, and more drama than what I'm usually used to write, so helpful comments/reviews are welcome.

* * *

**

Inside the gloom that is the room of the little sister of Scarlet, Flandre Scarlet, the two vampires meet again, for the first time in countless years; no Sakuya, no Meiling, no Patchouli, just the two Scarlet sisters.

Although there is a single candle dimly illuminating the gloom of the room, to the sisters it seems so dark, it is as if they are inside the darkness of the void.

Remilia's eyes hide under a thick and dark shadow cast by her own hair, and after much thought, she says "I thought I lost you again."

Flandre stands in a corner, away from Remilia, next to the door that's kept her shut in, safe from the evils of the world outside her room for so many years.

Holding on to the twisted rod she uses as a weapon on so many occasions, she twists her hands around it, her eyes hidden under the shadow of her hat, which she lowers with her right hand as she asks "w-what are you talking about, sis? I'm always here. I've always been here."

Remilia feels as though a large thorn has penetrated her cold heart, and it mocks her, keeping her alive while stabbing her repeatedly.

She raises her voice as she says "that's not what I mean, Flandre!"

The little sister flinches, then starts twisting her hands around her rod again.

Remilia takes a deep breath as she says "you called for them. Our mother and father. You reverted back to what you were... before..."

Flandre gulps as she raises her head to look at her sister, their eyes still hidden under a thick, black shadow.

Remilia keeps her face still, as though she's a statue, then says "That brought back so many memories I wish I never had in the first place."

There is a moment of silence between the sisters, then Remilia asks "do you remember them? Do you remember what happened before we came to live here? To this paradise?"

Flandre's body tenses, she clenches her rod tightly, and softly growls, then says "I don't wanna! K-keep them away from me!"

Remilia raises her voice again as she says "you are Flandre Scarlet of the Scarlet Devi Mansion! Do not disgrace your name!"

Flandre starts to sob as she says "but it hurts! I don't want to remember!"

Remilia lowers her voice again as she asks "are you not my sister? Won't you share the burden with me?"

Flandre calms down as she looks curiously at her sister, then says "onee-sama, I AM your sister. But why do we have to do this? Why now? I am here already, so what's the point?"

Remilia sighs, understanding how Flandre must be feeling the same thing as her, maybe worse.

She smiles, though this smile comes empty; a lie.

This fake smile manages to calm Flandre down a bit, then Remilia says "you were... such a happy little girl. If it wasn't for your powers, and those wings... you could have easily fooled everyone into thinking you were human."

Flandre sniffles, then says "I... I remember..."

* * *

In a foreign land hidden inside a thick mist, where a single, small village stands close to a forest, and a large, gloomy castle, home of the Scarlet sisters, Remilia and Flandre Scarlet, a terrible, fateful even is about to take place, and though she has the power to see and change fate, even she fails to foresee the events that are to unfold.

It's late noon, and the human maids all work diligently in keeping the castle spotless, as the mistress of the castle demands cleanliness.

Regardless of what other may think of her, just because she's a vampire, she too likes clean atmospheres.

All maids wear a red maid's dress with long skirts, and a bonnet for good measure and only the chief maid is allowed to wear a black dress.

Remilia wakes up and sits on her bed for a while, looking around her room just as a long haired blonde maid with light blue eyes enters the room and says "good afternoon, my lady. I hope you had a pleasant rest."

Remilia's lips seem to turn into a very faint smile as she looks at the maid and calmly says "chief maid. Good afternoon. Yes, I had a pleasant rest, though I must say, I feel rather odd today."

As Remilia jumps off her bed, the chief maid stares at her curiously, offering a clean set of clothes as Remilia's pajamas fly to the bed, then asks "do you wish to reschedule your visit to the village, then?"

Remilia raises her voice slightly as she quickly says "no! No, if I miss the visit they might start talking. Ugh, ever since dad..."

The chief maid keeps quiet and looks away as the room becomes silent, then Remilia, who is now fully clothed in white, wearing her usual poofy white hat and matching dress, says "our relation is already delicate as it is. No, Shurelia! If I skip even once, it could get dangerous for us. Not everyone feels friendly towards a vampire."

Remilia looks at her long clawed hand and softly says "and who can blame them."

Shurelia stares at Remilia with saddened eyes, unable to find comforting words for her mistress, but she is soon brought into attention by Remilia, who snaps her fingers and says "keep focused. You're my chief maid after all!"

Shurelia gasps and panics for a brief moment, then bows and says "please, forgive me, my lady! I'll gladly get your meal ready! Please come to the dining room whenever you are ready."

Remilia stares neutrally at the chief maid's face, then slowly blinks once as the maid turns around and leaves in a rush to the kitchen.

Remilia looks out the window of her room, the thick curtains keeping the harsh sunlight outside so it doesn't disturb her, as she thinks "this world is changing too much. Magic is being replaced by technology too quickly. People are forgetting their values and they culture."

She walks out her room and slowly makes her way to the dining room with a most serious expression in her face as she thinks "but all that is of no concern to me. As long as I have my sister and my castle, we'll all be fine."

* * *

Meanwhile, puppy barks and giggles can be heard echoing from the stairs leading down to the castle's basement.

One of the maids approaches the stairs and calls "miss Flandre, is that you? Your breakfast is getting cold!"

The maid feels as though a small carriage has run her over, and finds herself flying against her will toward the wall at an unforgiving, and uncontrollable speed, yet she doesn't feels the expected impact on her back, and instead finds herself floating just above the ground.

She slowly lands back down on to the ground, and as soon as she's safely on her feet, she turns around and finds Flandre looking up at her with tears in her eyes, nervously saying "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I didn't see you, and... and."

The maid smiles and bends down, patting Flandre's head while saying "it's alright young mistress. Look, I'm fine. You don't need to cry."

Flandre rubs her eyes with her forearms and sniffles, then the puppy barks resume to her left.

The maid picks up a little white puppy with a brown patch on the center of its torso, and another on the right half of his face and a little red collar around his neck.

She offers him to Flandre with a smile and says "see? Inuki doesn't like it when you cry either, so why don't you smile for us?"

The little puppy stares at Flandre and wags his little tail as rapidly as he can, making Flandre smile and giggle after a while.

She accepts the puppy and picks it as gently as she can, and while still smiling she looks at the maid and says "thank you. And sorry for hitting you. I'll be more careful, I promise."

The maid giggles and pats Flandre's head, saying "run along now. Your sister should be at the dinner table right now."

Flandre's eyes seem to close up as she smiles and nods, then says "ok! See you later~"

Holding her puppy with both arms, Flandre runs to the dining room, while the maid smiles widely and waits for Flandre to leave the area.

As soon as the little blonde vampire is out of sight, the maid sighs and holds her stomach as she gets back up in pain, then whispers "that really hurt. Ugh, that poor sweet girl. She still can't control her own strength."

She limps toward the other side of the corridor, and after a painful chuckle, she says "I guess I better head to the infirmary again."

Even though she's in pain, she continues to smile as she limps her way to the infirmary, thinking of ways to help Flandre control her power as she does.

* * *

Flandre arrives to the dining room with her little puppy in her hands, looking everywhere for Remilia, and the moment she finds her sister, she lets the pup drop on the ground, then runs toward her sister with a big smile and her arms extended in the air.

She jumps on Remilia, even though she's already on her chair, and exclaims "onee-sama~ Onee-sama you are here!"

Remilia can't help but crack a smile, and after patting her sister's head, she says "I am happy to see you too, Flan, but we must remember our table manners."

Flandre immediately backs away, placing her finger over her mouth while saying "oops. Sorry onee-sama."

Remilia continues to smile as she says "there's someone else you should apologize to, Flandre."

The little blonde vampire looks all over the room, thinking the maid she crashed on to is in there, but instead, she sees Remilia pointing downward, and when Flandre looks down, she finds her puppy wagging his little tail at her while panting and looking up.

Flandre gently picks him up, then Remilia says "you just dropped Inuki like that. Flandre, I told you that you had to be very careful with him, didn't I? He's fragile. More so than a human."

Flandre's eyes turn watery as she looks up at Remilia with a reprimanded look, then nods and looks down at her puppy and says "s-sorry Inuki. I'll be more careful, I promise."

Remilia's smile seems to vanish when the doors open, and two maids enter the room with covered silver colored plates on their hands.

Remilia clears her throat while looking at Flandre, who gasps and quickly moves to the other end of the table, where she places Inuki on the ground with great care, then struggles a bit before finally managing to sit on her chair, trying to mimic Remilia's own sitting pose.

While this happens, Remilia stares at her sister quietly and thinks "Flandre... I know it's not your fault that you were born with all that out-of-control power... My dear sister, when will be finally be able to control those powers of yours?"

After the maids place the sisters their meals on the table, they open the silver covers to reveal perfectly prepared meals with red sauce on them.

Flandre giggles as she waves at her sister from the other side of the table, but soon remembers that she must have manners, so she lowers her little arm and puts on a neutral face, then gently picks up her spoon.

Before digging in, she watches as a third maid enters with a small silver bowl and places it on the floor with food for the pup to eat, then looks up at Remilia, noticing the calm stare on her sister's face, then asks "onee-sama? Why is our food always covered in this red sauce?"

Remilia lets a smile and a quick chuckle escape her, then says "it's something special for us, Flan. I'll explain when you're a little older."

By the time Remilia is done speaking, Flandre has already eaten her meal, and is smiling back at her with red sauce, which is actually blood, all over her cheeks.

Still smiling, Remilia takes her first bite and thinks "geez. Still a long way before she learns some manners... that sister of mine."

* * *

The sky outside the castle turns gold by the time Remilia is ready to leave to visit the village.

Shurelia, the chief maid, walks beside Remilia down the stairs to the foyer, holding a closed pink parasol on her arms as she asks "are you certain you don't wish for me to come with you, my lady?"

After reaching the bottom stair, Remilia raises her hand to receive her parasol from Shurelia, and after grabbing hold of it, she says "no. I want you to stay here and take care of things while I'm gone. Remember what happened with Flandre last time."

A sweat drop falls down the back of Shurelia's head as she scratches her cheek, smiles sheepishly, then says "right. I'll take good care of miss Flandre while you're out."

Remilia smiles lightly and nods, then reaches for the door.

Before she opens it, Flandre calls "onee-sama~ Onee-sama, are you leaving?"

Remilia turns around and finds Flandre holding her puppy while smiling.

Remilia hugs Flandre with her right hand and says "I have to. You know how those villagers get. Now you be a good girl and behave, you hear?"

Flandre nods while still pressing her head against Remilia's chest, then says "see you later, onee-sama."

Remilia lets Flandre go, then opens the door, opening her parasol before going outside.

Before closing the door again, she looks at her smiling sister, her puppy and the chief maid staring back at her.

She can't help but smile and wave her fingers at them, then closes the door.

She looks at the solid gates for the large walls surrounding her castle, and after making sure the gates are locked tight, and that everything is set, she takes flight and heads straight to the village.

As she flies, she decided to go a little higher to hide over the clouds, thinking "it's been a while since I've done this. Mmm, feels so nice once in a while."

As she continues her flight to the village, she is unaware of the danger below, in the thick forest just before her castle.

Under the trees, hooded religious extremist, and a large number of men from the village slowly make their way to the castle.

The man leading them looks back through his hood and shouts "hurry men! It's almost dark! We must strike this demon while there is light!"

One of the men, a short haired blonde man, approaches the leader and loudly asks "but sir, the Scarlets have never attacks our village before! How can you be so sure they'll attack us now?"

The man stops, making all his followers stop as well, then turns around and strikes the blonde man across the face with his hand, making him fall to the ground on his back.

He approaches the blonde man and helps him up, then says "son, wake up! These creatures are demons!"

The hooded man raises his voice as he says "a demon that goes against the laws for nature itself! Think! They need blood, OUR BLOOD, in order to sustain themselves! They are MONSTERS; BEASTS! Who is to say they won't attack us soon!"

The other men cheer as the blonde man stares back at the hooded man, then says "right... I guess you are right. For my children, and my children's children!"

The hooded man smiles, then shouts "that's the spirit! ONWARD!"

* * *

After just 10 minutes of flying above the clouds, Remilia reaches the village, and slowly lands close to the village's fountain plaza, where there are many people at the time.

Some of the people, mostly younger ones, yelp at the sight of the vampire, while others, mostly elders and adults, smile and welcome Remilia with open arms.

Remilia lands to the far left of the fountain and smiles at the male elder that approaches her, who says "miss Remilia, we were starting to think you weren't coming."

Remilia continues to smile lightly as she replies "well, I had to spend a little time with my sister."

The old man chuckles and says "family is very important, miss Remilia. You do what you must."

While the elder and the adults approach Remilia, the younger humans glare, some even mouth rude and unwelcoming words as they leave the area.

Remilia's smile disappears, yet she keeps her calm neutral face, as the head of the church approaches the plaza, saying "demon from the darkness, why do you torment us with your presence? Leave at once, and let us live our peaceful lives."

Remilia stares back at the priest, and simply bows and turns her sight away, then walks to the nearest bench, where she, the elder and his wife take a seat and start talking amongst themselves.

The priest's rage becomes evident in his snarling face as more villagers, even a few of the young ones, approach Remilia, who seems to be laughing while speaking to them.

Some of the other young humans approach the priest instead, and look up to him with longing in their eyes.

The priest fakes calming down, then pulls out a small wooden cross from his robe, then throws it straight at Remilia's head, shouting "the power of the benign one will smite you, you fowl demon!"

The people around Remilia gasp in shock as the wooden cross flies straight toward her head, but she grabs its bottom and just stares at it.

The priest shrieks in horror and shouts "but the GODS! You are a most powerful demon indeed!"

The elder stands up and says "sir, please. Remilia is no demon."

The priest shouts back "you are all going to be sorry! One day, she'll turn on all of you! You'll see! She will kill you all!"

As the priest walks back to his church accompanied by the young humans, the elder shouts "miss Remilia would never do that! You just need to get to know her better!"

Remilia calmly says "sir, please. Let him be. I don't want to cause any trouble."

The elder stares back at Remilia's cool face, then accepts the cross from her hand with a sigh.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the castle's gates, the men use a hammer and chisel to break the last chain that holds the gate closed, and just in time before the sun fully sets.

Once they are inside the yard, they whisper to each other, planning their attack.

The first to reach the front door is the hooded leader, who turns around and starts speaking loudly, saying "whatever you may see in there, REMEMBER! We are inside the castle of a DEMON! All those who serve this demon are beyond our help, and must be cleansed through death! You're not taking away lives, men! You are saving innocent souls!"

The men start cheering and raising their pitch forks, torches and swords along with the religious extremists, whom all have silver swords with them.

From inside the mansion, three maids hear the cheers just outside their doors and look at each other, one of them asking "huh? What is that noise?"

The chief maid lets out a commanding shout, making the three maids climb up the stairs to stand behind her.

Just as they take their positions, the front doors break open, and the religious extremists enter first, stopping at the first steps of the stairs.

The villagers all exclaim in awe, some commenting on the cleanliness of the castle, as well as commenting about the maids, and how normal they look.

Shurelia bows elegantly and says "welcome to the castle of mistress Remilia Scarlet. I'm afraid the mistress it out, and I will have to ask you to leave and come another day."

The extremists take off their hoods and turn to the villagers, then their leader, a man with little brown hair on his head, shouts "do not be deceived! Remember, they are under the control of a demon! You must kill them all!"

Shurelia gets a bit frightened, and signals the maids to run away as she says "sir, what is this? Please, just leave us in peace and..."

Before she finishes, two of the religious extremists run past her and stab the maids standing to her side, then both men stab the one directly behind her at the same time.

With a terrified look in her face, Shurelia turns around to see her subordinates fall to the ground, blood spilling all over the carpet from their wounds and mouths.

The leader shouts "spread out! Kill everyone on sight! Free their souls! Send them BACK to the hands of the benign one! FREE THEM ALL!"

Shurelia finds herself unable to stop them, and as if lost in her own mind, she repeats "please, sir. Leave us in peace... Leave us now, please!"

Without realizing it, she's been stabbed in the abdomen by the extremist leader's sword, and falls to the floor next to her fallen subordinates.

Unsure of what happened, she lifts her hands from her abdomen and looks at them. They are all bloodied up.

Her hearing returns to her just to fill her up with terror as the screams of all the other maids reach her, and in the despair, she ignores the pain in her body and takes a deep breath, then shouts "Flandre~"

Up on the second floor, unaware of what's happening in her home, Flandre plays with her puppy just around one of the many corridor's corners.

The little puppy runs around in a circle, then suddenly stops and sniffs toward the right corridor.

Flandre looks at where he's sniffing at and asks "Inuki, what's the matter?"

Flandre yelps in a fright when she feels a pair of hands force themselves on her from her left, but she relaxes when she sees the face of the same maid she bumped on to, hours before, her favorite of all the maids.

Though she notices the terror and urgency on the maid's face, Flandre still smiles as she asks "oh, is it bath time already?"

The maid embraces Flandre, exclaiming "by the spirits, you're safe! Lady Flandre, listen to me, we have to run away, NOW!"

The maid releases Flandre, and she and Inuki stare at the maid with innocent and confused faces, so the maid edges Flandre to grab her hand, saying "trust me, lady Flandre! Please, just come with me!"

Flandre hesitantly reaches for the maid's hand, when a voice from the right shouts "I FOUND MORE OF THEM! OVER HERE!"

The maid desperately whispers "lady Flandre, let's go!", but it's too late, and they find themselves surrounded from both corridors.

Cornered and outnumbered, Flandre starts to tremble, grabbing hold of Inuki as he start to bravely bark back at the invaders, then crawls under a tiny ornamental table with a small potted plant on top, while the maid stands bravely between her and the attackers, shouting "please! Don't do this! She's just a child!"

One of the villagers stabs her chest with his pitchfork, saying "BE CLEANSED! Go to the light!"

Flandre screams and cries after witnessing the horrible event in front of her, watching as the maid's body falls lifeless on the ground.

Inuki starts to bark madly as the villagers get closer, then the blonde man, the same one that had doubts before, gets a better look at Flandre, and after seeing her strange wings he says "by the lord! She's one of them!"

Suddenly, one of the men shouts "WE FOUND THE DEMON!"

Another shouts "kill her now!", while others cheer and shout "burn her! Cleanse this land from her presence!"

Flandre cries inconsolably, sobbing while trying to say "get... get away from me", but her cries fall on deaf ears.

The extremists arrive at the scene bearing their swords and pointing them at the lone blonde vampire, ignoring her cries and pleas, then the leader of the invaders turns to face his group and shouts "do not be deceived! This is just a ruse to trick us, then kill us all! Let's kill her now and be rid of her!"

The men cheer, all thinking they are doing the right thing, that they are saving their lands, yet they ignore the terrorized and sorrowful cries of a little child.

The extremist leader lunges his sword straight at Flandre's heart, ignoring Inuki in her arms, then all of a sudden, he explodes, his blood spraying everywhere.

When they look at Flandre, she has her right hand raised chest-high and balled into a fist while having her eyes clenched shut.

When she opens her eyes and realizes what she did, she gasps and stares at the invaders.

She can see the surprise and terror in their blood-covered faces, then she shouts "no... NO! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"

The blonde man shouts "kill her now!"

Flandre cries as all the men start charging her, and in her despair, she lets go of Inuki and starts flailing her arms around, shattering weapons and breaking arms and legs while trying to defend herself, keeping her eyes closed while crying.

Finally, in her last attempt to defend herself, she blindly clenches her little hand, causing another bloodied explosion.

When she realizes the men are quiet, she slowly opens her eyes and spots the small red collar on the floor.

Her pupils shrink to the size of miniature marbles and her eyes expand widely, taking almost all her face, as she breathes deeply, and from outside the castle, her scream echoes far, then the sound of explosions and more deaths echo through the darkening evening.

* * *

Later that night, Remilia flies above the castle and immediately realizes something is wrong.

The lights are all off, the front door lies broken on the ground, the front gate's chains are all broken and the gate is wide open.

The moment she sets foot in her castle's yard, she feels a cold chill creep up her back, but keeping her usual cool face, she looks into the darkness of the castle and enters.

To a human, the darkness would be too thick to even see the tip of his or her nose right in front, but to Remilia, it's nothing at all, and the first thing she notices is the blood dripping down the stairs.

After looking at it for a moment, the sent reaches her, then thinks "this blood. This is Shurelia's blood!"

With her straight face, she rushes up the stair and immediately finds her chief maid and three more maids on the platform of the first set of stair.

Shurelia's head hangs limp down the very first step, her light-blue eyes widely open, showing her terror before her death, her blood staining her beautiful blonde hair as it continues its course down the steps to the ground floor.

Remilia kneels down next to her chief maid and gently closes her eyes with her hand, and with a calm and collected face, she says "I am so sorry. I didn't see this horrible fate. R-rest now, Shurelia."

She grabs and carries Shurelia away from the steps, and places her on the center of the platform before the second floor, saying "there. You should be more comfortable now."

She stands up with her calm face, hiding her sorrow deep inside of her, then looks around as if trying to find something, then heads up the right stairs.

As she walks down the corridor, she finds the bodies of all her maids, their blood all over the walls and floor, then spots one of her maids with a pitchfork still stabbed on her abdomen.

Though keeping a straight face, her deep sorrow slowly turns to anger, then suddenly reaches for the gardening too, and as she pulls the pitchfork out of the maid's body, she watches as the wound starts spewing out even more blood, some of it spraying on to her face, causing her to let out a small tear from her left eye as she breaks the weapon with her hand, clenching her hands and teeth, then recovering her calm face.

Remilia continues her walk down the corridor, finding more weapons and torches on the ground along with larger stains of blood on the walls and floor, then finds Flandre's favorite maid with various fork wounds on her abdomen and chest that go through to her back.

Finally, she finds what she was looking for, and after an excited gasp, Remilia calls "Flandre! Flandre there you are!"

Flandre sits on the floor, letting her arms and legs lie limp on the floor, her tears flooding down her cheeks as she stares blankly to her left.

Before Remilia can get close, Flandre yelps and trembles as she curls into a whimpering and trembling ball, shouting "no! Get away! No, I don't want to. No more! No more!"

Remilia stops when she notices Flandre's despair, then softly says "Flan, it's me. Remilia, your onee-sama!"

Slowly, Remilia gets closer to Flandre, noticing a crazed and desperate look in her eyes as she slowly lifts her face up, apparently giving up the fight, ready to allow the next attacker to come and finish her off.

Remilia touches her head and softly says "Flandre, it's me. Onee-sama. Remilia! Look at me, Flan."

Flandre continues to tremble, doing so even harder as she lets go of her knees, then looks at Remilia, her eyes still wide open and her pupils shrinking and growing uncontrollably, then says "onee-sama will come! ONEE-SAMA WILL COME! Help me, onee-sama! REMILIA! Save me!"

Flandre crawls to the corner under the now broken ornamental table and start to sob, and that's when Remilia notices the broken collar of Inuki on the ground.

She looks back at Flandre, softly saying "Flan... what... but... that is..."

She looks all around her and all she sees is blood everywhere, weapons broken, the hoods of the religious extremists on the ground covered in blood, and that's when she notices the cross symbols on the hoods.

Again, she looks at her little sister, who is mumbling rapidly and incoherently, then snaps.

Remilia's calm face is suddenly replaced by a monstrous and furious look, her eyes turning completely red, her face twisting with blind rage, her fangs clenched and bare, looking even larger than normal, and her aura becomes visible, making it look as though she's being engulfed in flames.

From outside, it looks as though a bomb has just exploded on the back of the second floor of the large and gloomy castle.

Remilia has broken through the wall itself, holding on to a scarlet colored spear on her hand as she flies trough the night, heading straight toward the small village.

* * *

At the village's church, the priest paces around, grumbling to himself.

He looks out the window toward the forest that surrounds the Scarlet's castle, then says "those idiots STILL haven't returned! Oh benign one, please, send me news of their success. Give me a sign that your will has been done!"

As he speaks, the priest walks toward a giant wooden cross in the very center of a white altar, then closes his eyes as he kneels and waits for a sign, a sign he hopes to be a beam of light, or the arrival of his comrades.

He opens his eyes and gasps with fright as the sign that comes is the rumbling of the church's roof instead.

He stands on his feet and staggers toward the window again, then spots Remilia flying next to his church, lunging large scarlet colored spears to the roof of the church, screaming loud to the air and causing the entire village to wake up.

She finally breaks through the church's roof and rapidly enters and grabs the priest by his neck, and lifts him out into the open night sky.

With her fangs twice as large, her face turned demonic with rage, and her eyes glowing bright scarlet, she squeezes the priest's neck, piercing it just slightly with her claws and making some blood trickle down to his robe as she shouts "TRAITOR~"

Her scream echoes all over the village, making the elders walk out of their homes, curious as to what is happening.

Remilia take a furious bite off the priest's neck, spits the chunk of flesh to the ground, then tosses his dying body to the air, where she burns it to ashes with a fiery scarlet cross made by her own hatred toward him.

After his death, she looks down at the villagers and screams "you killed them all! You monsters~ Die, die, die, die~"

The elder, who was laughing with Remilia earlier, screams "miss Remilia, what happened? Miss Remilia! Miss Scarlet, stop! NO~"

Unable to reach her, Remilia's scarlet spears quickly turns the elder to ashes, and as Remilia swoops down to destroy the houses with her bare claws, she shouts "how dare you do that to Flandre? Give me back Shurelia! GIVE HER BACK~ Give me all my maids BACK!"

The people scream and try to flee for their lives, but the second Remilia lays her eyes on them, she kills them, whether by furiously biting them, turning them to ashes with her scarlet spells, or ripping them in half with her own claws, she continues her relentless attack on the village, killing without pause.

Her rage has her completely out of control; the memory of her maids killed by the villagers gardening tools and the church extremists sword sill burning in her mind, but the most painful though is the one for Flandre.

The thought of the pain her little sister went through fuels her rage even more, keeping her blind to what she is doing.

Her tears don't stop as she continues to hunt down the remaining villagers, tearing their houses to the ground with her own body and scarlet spells, and finally, after the last of the humans dies under her feet with a scarlet spear stabbed on his back, Remilia finally collapses, holding her face as she kneels on the ground and lets her tears run free, yet keeping from sobbing or wailing.

Finally, after her tears stop, and her eyes and face return to their normal state, yet frowning and scowling, Remilia takes flight back home, determined to help her sister.

* * *

Back at the castle, while Remilia destroys the village, Flandre sways back and forth in the corner, staring at Inuki's collar while tears escape her eyes, repeating "onee-sama will come. She'll save me. She'll save us, little puppy. What? Your name? W-what's your name? I... this is not the time. We have to hide, puppy. We... have... to... E-heh... heh, he, ha, hah. AHAHAA! AH, HA, HA, HA. Let's play... L-let's play~"

A few minutes later, Remilia arrives to the castle and manages to turn on a few lamps, the damage all through her castle becoming more evident, now that there's some light.

Without pause, and ignoring that her dress has turned scarlet, Remilia grabs a lamp and rushes to where she left Flandre, only to find that she is gone.

She looks at the carpet and notices the blood-stained footsteps of her sister heading away, then notices Inuki's collar is also gone.

She sighs, then thinks "I have to find her. I have to make sure she's alright!"

Following her sister's sent, she finds herself heading down the basement, a place she rarely visits, but the love she has for her sister makes her forget everything else, and simply rushes down the stairs.

She flies past the great library of the castle, then sees more blood-stained footsteps on the floor, headed straight toward a room with a large, thick grey door.

Remilia sighs with relief as she thinks "good. She's in her room. Maybe she's calmed down by now."

Remilia pulls open the door and softly calls "Flan, are you in here?"

Remilia's eyes widen with surprise as she lets out a sudden gasp.

Inside, she finds Flandre hugging her knees while swaying back and forth on her bed, a crazed expression filling her face.

Her smile seems twisted, and her eyes seem to be lost from the world.

Remilia enters the room and softly asks "Flandre? Are you alright?"

Flandre notices Remilia, and with that twisted smile on her face, she rushes to her sister, her hands trembling as she grabs hold of Remilia's arms, saying "o-onee-sama. You came. The puppy missed you. He... he wants you to say hi to him! Come... COME!"

Remilia softly says "Flan. Flandre, what's wrong? Please, Flan, don't do this. Stay with me. I need you here, Flandre! Please, stay with me."

Flandre's face suddenly twists from a crazed smile, to an insane frown, and with that, Flandre pushes Remilia out of her room with all her might, sending Remilia crashing against the wall just outside the door, then shouts "onee-sama has to be more lady-like! You offended the GUEST! You THINK about what you've done!"

After slamming the door shut, Flandre starts to cry and sob, her sobbing slowly turning to mad laughter, saying "play! I'll play with you! I will play!"

As Remilia gets back up, she can hear the sound of ripping fabric coming from the room while her sister giggles in a strange and twisted manner.

A sharp, cold pain strikes Remilia's heart, and although she keeps her straight face, she can't hold back the flood of tears that course through her cheeks.

Unable to take it anymore, Remilia walks away from her sister's room, down the dark and gloomy corridor of the now empty castle.

As she slowly walks in front of the large library's door, she stops and swipes the tears off her face, then looks at the door.

She bursts through the doors and immediately heads to the center of the large room, quickly looking through the piles and piles of books left on the dusty desks, looking for something she's not really sure what it is.

Finally, she comes across a book with a thick black cover, titled in gold "Ancient Arcane Spells", and as if knowing what to do, she opens the book on one of the last pages and reads through it.

Without even flinching, she cuts her left forearm with her claw and draws a complex magical circle with her blood on the carpeted floor.

After she is done, she places the book on the desk, summons her scarlet spear and strikes the center of the circle with it.

Leaving the spear there to activate the circle, Remilia flies just above it, and starts speaking in an ancient tongue.

As she speaks the incantation loudly, she thinks "Flandre, I'm taking us away from here. Far away from this place! I'm not sure where this spell will take us, but to hell I'll allow you and me to live in this world anymore!"

As she thinks this, the bodies and the blood all over the castle become energy for the spell, even Inuki's collar, to which Flandre merely waves goodbye, saying "see you someday, mister puppy~."

The ground begins to tremble and rumble hard and loud, then the entire castle slowly glows scarlet under the light of the moon.

While this happens, Remilia thinks "whatever happens now, Flandre, know that I'll do my best to be there for you. Just please... Please, Flandre, don't leave me alone!"

As the very tip of the castle's clock tower starts glowing scarlet, and Remilia finishes the incantation, she looks outside the window and watches as the night sky outside turns bright white, and everything seems to disappear in a mixture of white and scarlet.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

JUL 14 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.  
**

**I am not really used to write stories like this. Usually, I like to add humor to my writing whenever I can, but this just can't be done here, if I am to deliver the feelings that NEED to be delivered through this writing. Again I ask you to please leave a review/comment, tell me what you think. Anonymous or not, just leave a comment, please. I hope you enjoy this story and the chapters that are to come. See you next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

**This fiction contains bloody scenes, so if you're not fond of this kind of developments, please hit that back button now. Keep in mind that, although I am trying to go as faithfully as possible to ZUN's SDM back story, he is vague with details, so I am filling up the holes with my own version of what could have happened. You may disregard this story if you want... or not. Thank you, and do enjoy the story.

* * *

**

Lives destroyed because of one group's extreme beliefs in what seemed like good, and retribution due to an uncontrollable rage.

A whole village bathed in the blood and ashes of its former inhabitants, left to rot and disappear from history.

An enormous empty spot in the middle of a thick forest; a spot where once stood the gloomy castle of Remilia and Flandre Scarlet.

This small patch of land used to be so peaceful, and in the course of a single night, that peace was destroyed, along with so many lives.

Now the land is left to care on its own, while the two Scarlet sisters and their entire castle move about to an unknown destination.

Though to Remilia, the moment the castle settles and the sky outside becomes visible through the small window once more, it's only been a day since she cast the spell, however, in reality, 3 days have passed since the horrific event took place.

Remilia's face stays as emotionless as ever as she looks out the window to admire a scarlet evening sky, and although she feels something has changed, all her thoughts dwell on her sister.

Remilia runs out of the library and heads straight to Flandre's room, opening the silver door with a bang, smiling and shouting "Flan! We just reached our new home! Come with me!"

Flandre hisses and jumps out of her bed to land behind it, then starts to cry while shouting "get away! You won't kill me! I'm too strong! I'll break you!"

Remilia's smile vanishes in an instant, replaced with a fearful and concerned frown, and asks "F-Flandre, don't you recognize me?"

Flandre peeks her little head from over the bed, and when she sees Remilia, she smiles very naturally and asks "onee-sama, where have you been? W-we were waiting for you."

Remilia looks around and notices some of the dolls and toys from Flandre's toy box lie on the ground, torn and broken.

Remilia looks into her sister's eyes, and instead of the kind and innocent little girl, she sees a desperate soul trying to find an escape from reality.

Noticing this, Remilia walks toward Flandre, pats her head, then calmly says "Flandre... You can't just ignore what happened. Be strong, my sister. We can start a new life together now. We... we'll get new servants, new friends. I'll even get you a new pet if you want."

Though she was just trying to settle her sister's worry, the mentioning of a new pet causes Flandre's mind to play Inuki's bark over and over, causing Flandre to cover her ears, crying and screaming, banging her head hard against the wall, repeating "no, NO! Shut up! Shut up! NO~ Please, stop barking! I can't hear you! I can't hear you!"

Remilia runs to her sister, trying embrace her, but Flandre grabs Remilia's left arm and rips it right out of its joint.

Remilia stands awestruck, staring at her sister with fright, while Flandre looks up at Remilia's face, and immediately start to cry and repeat "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! NOT AGAIN! NO!"

Remilia realizes the expression on her face isn't helping, so the neutralizes her face and softly says "Flan, it's alright. I'll be ok after I sleep. Look, you see? I'm smiling!"

Flandre looks up at Remilia's fake smile, then starts to sob, curling into a ball on the floor while saying "she's not here. She's gone. I broke her! I BROKE HER!"

Remilia once again tries to reach for her sister, but stops when Flandre's sobs slowly turn into a disturbing laughter.

When Flandre looks back up at Remilia, she whispers "play with me."

Remilia asks "Flandre, what's the matter? Please, tell me what's w-"

Before she can finish, Flandre unleashes her power, her aura turning scarlet and looking like wildfire that consumes the entire room, floating just above her bed, shouting "play with me until you break! Come on! I-It's gonna be fun! It's gonna be FUN! HAHAHA~"

Remilia tries to reason with her sister, but no words can reach her, and soon, she finds herself running to the door as large scarlet orbs fly straight toward her, each with enough power to threaten her life.

Closing the door behind herself, Remilia breathes rapidly and heavily as the orbs explode hard, causing a loud noise and strong vibration all over the area.

When the explosions stop, Flandre's insane laughter fills the basement corridor, and all Remilia can do now is look up at the ceiling above her while hugging herself with just one arm, hoping to find an answer.

* * *

Three days later, Remilia still lies on her bed while staring at the ceiling, still wearing the same dress from three days before, still covered in blood stains.

Her left arm is restored, but her heart still pains her.

She looks to her door, hoping to see her chief maid enter and offer her a new set of clean clothes, but like the three days before, all she gets is the harsh reality of her solitude smack her on the face once more.

She turns her head back to look at the ceiling, thinking of going back to sleep for a few more hours, but a strange sound catches her attention.

She sits on her bed, using her arms for support and listens as quietly as she can for that noise, and there it is again.

She jumps out of her bed and whispers to herself "intruders in my castle. They're in for a surprise."

Outside Remilia's room, the corridor, though large, doesn't look as large as it was before.

The windows look a little smaller and a little closer to each other, and the ceiling seems to be lower as well.

Ignoring this, Remilia jumps and crawls on the ceiling, keeping herself hidden away from the little afternoon sunlight that enters the corridor windows.

As she gets closer to the corner, she hears giggling and wings flapping, sometimes making music, like a symphony of small bells.

Remilia doesn't care about that, though. All she cares about is to kill the intruders and feast on their flesh.

She doesn't want to admit it, but she is famished, and feels weak and very tired.

The intruders giggles get louder, which means they are getting closer, so Remilia decides to stay quiet and wait for them to come; strike them down without having to expend much effort.

Patiently, she waits, and for a moment, it seems her giggling intruders are going back, but soon they seem to be coming around again, and just as she hears them right underneath her, she drops down fast, clawing without looking, the sound of shredding fabric giving her some pleasure, thinking her intruders are something edible.

After pinning down the two little girls, the little light that enters through the windows reveals two frightened fairies with torn wings shivering under Remilia's hands.

When Remilia realizes all the got were mere fairies, her hunger and frustration get the best of her as she screams "dammit to hell! FAIRIES? UGH! And here I thought I was going to be able to eat something decent!"

She slowly removes her hands form the two little fairies, who continue to shiver as they crawl away from the vicious vampire, and that's when Remilia finally realizes it.

Gasping, the vampire runs to the foyer and rushes outside through the still broken doors, thinking "fairies? I thought these creatures couldn't live in the human world anymore! Where am I? Where... are WE?"

As soon as she is outside, the sun sets, saving her from the blundering mistake of forgetting her parasol, and Remilia notices something more.

As she looks at the walls around her castle, she notices it's scarlet colored now, and seem to be smaller than she remembers them.

As she slowly turns around to her castle, she thinks "what's this? Did the spell cause this..?"

Losing her train of thoughts, Remilia opens her mouth and eyes wide with surprise at the sight of her castle.

She sighs, then says to herself "a mansion. It changed into a mere mansion. But why?"

She looks at the clock tower and says "at least that's still there. Though... everything is red... scarlet. My castle has become a mere scarlet mansion."

She takes flight and flies around her now new mansion to explore.

The hole on the back wall she made when her rage took over her is gone, looking like nothing ever happened.

The windows sit closely together now, and what was once a frightening architecture has now become a peaceful-looking mansion, though bigger than regular human mansions.

She flies back down to the ground next to the front door, thinking "well, there's no helping it. I wonder why did the castle chose this form anyway? No matter. I need to focus. I need to find out where I am."

Remilia's thoughts are brought to a halt by a tiny finger that pokes her back.

Angry, Remilia turns around and shouts "what's your problem?"

She is surprised to find the two fairies she attacked earlier carrying fruits and vegetables on a large leaf.

She looks at the fairies for a moment, then says "you're offering me this garbage? I need more that just fruits and vegetable to survive!"

She scans the area just outside her gates, then smiles and says "wait here", and in just a few seconds there is a sudden growl, a slash, a gush and finally, a thud, then Remilia returns with the fresh corpse of a youkai boar, saying "it may not be human, but it should sustain me. Come, help me with these."

Obediently, the little fairies grab their offerings from the ground, and follow Remilia back inside.

* * *

While Remilia prepares the meal, she addresses to the little fairies, saying "so, you like it here, ever though this is a vampire's home?"

The two fairies nod, then the blue haired fairy asks "can we play here?"

Remilia glares at them, yet keeps her neutral expression, then replies "those who live here must EARN their stay."

The little blond fairy with the slightly broken left wing giggles and says "but we can't work."

Remilia rubs her chin while in thought, then says "hmm, I guess you two aren't that far behind. You can speak..."

After looking at the two fairies for a moment, she thinks "fairies are such useless creatures, but right now I am just too weakened to explore this place. Could be dangerous. Can they really help?"

The blue haired fairy flutters above Remilia and removes the large pot from the fire just as it starts to smoke, surprising Remilia.

The vampire thinks for a little longer, then looks at the two fairies and asks "would you like to play dress-up?"

The two fairies look at each other, then back at Remilia, and giggle as they nod in unison.

A few minutes later, Remilia sits on the dinner table at the darkened dining room, a place she used to enjoy being in, and now feels unappealing to her, yet she finds it even less appealing and unrefined to eat anywhere else.

The food on the plate, though not as elegantly presented as she is used to, is still to her liking.

The two little fairies arrive to the room, both wearing a small brown maid outfit, flying around each other while giggling and playing around.

Remilia gulps the food in her mouth, cleans her lips with a small white napkin, leaving a small blood stain on it, then strictly says "that's enough! Present yourselves to me this instant."

The two fairies look at Remilia curiously, then Remilia sighs and sounding annoyed, she says "get over here. I want to see you."

Giggling, the two fairies fly down, the blonde fairy already fully recovered, then Remilia smiles and says "yes, you two look great. Now, how about you play a little game with me?"

The little fairies cheer and repeat the word "game" over and over, while flying around in circles, but stop when Remilia punches the table to get their attention.

After they stop, Remilia sighs, smirks, and says "the game is called 'Being a Good Maid', and in this game, you have to keep things clean, prepare meals, and obey my every command. Whoever does the best job wins the game. In fact, you can start the game by telling me the name of this land."

The little fairy maids looks at each other, then turn to Remilia with a smile and say "home!" at the same time.

Remilia sighs and thinks "so useless", then says "right... home. Then here's my next command. Try turning on a few lights around here. It's really dark, even for me. And remember, the one who does the best job wins."

The two little fairies fly around the area and use their magic to turn on the lamps around the dining room, the blonde fairy saying "I'm gonna win this easily!"

The blue haired fairy replies "not if I beat you first!"

And so, the two little fairies, after having turned on all the lamps they could find in the dining room, quickly head out the corridor and continue lighting lamps with their magic bullets.

Remilia stares at them and thinks "they may be useless, but they sure are energetic about it. Now, I'm going to need more of them in order to keep this place in shape."

She finally looks at her plate, looking at the leftovers, then sighs and says "Shurelia. You used to make these plates look so delectable... now look at this mess."

After looking at her plate for a while longer, she suddenly fires a large red orb at it, turning the food to ashes and breaking a perfect round hole on her end of the table.

She looks away toward the corridor and says to herself "I better get Flan some food to her room. She must be starving."

Upon arriving to Flandre's room, Remilia softly knocks on the door and gently calls "Flan... It's me, Remilia. I got some food here for you."

When Remilia enters the room, she find Flandre sleeping on her bed, uncovered and looking toward the wall.

She places the food plate on the small table next to the door, walks toward her sister, covers her up with her shredded sheets, then kisses her cheek, saying "sleep tight, Flandre. Maybe tomorrow we can explore this land together."

Remilia quietly heads out the door, and as gently as possible, she closes it, unaware that her sister is not only awake, but smiling in a most vile and disturbing manner.

* * *

The next day, at midday, Remilia wakes up on her bed, cleaned up from all the dried blood and wearing her sleeping garments.

She eagerly gets off her bed, thinking "today, Flandre and I go exploring. I'm sure all she needed was some sleep to calm down, and now she's all rested up. This will be fun. Me and her, exploring our new home together."

While she thinks this, she slips off her little sleeping dress and slips on another white dress, similar to the one she had before, though this one comes with a pair of frilly wrist cuffs with a red bow.

After making sure she's properly dressed, she heads outside her room, opening her door, then stopping right in front of the two fairies, both still dressed as maids and eager to receive their new commands.

The blue haired fairy raises her little hand and says "I turned on the most lamps, so I win!"

The blond fairy looks bitterly at her friend and says "you got lucky. Miss vampire, what are your next commands?"

Remilia face palms and closes her eyes as she sighs and whispers to herself "so useless", then looks at the two little fairies and says "first of all, you will address to me as miss Remilia, understood?"

The two fairies salute and nod, saying "yes, miss Remilia" at the same time.

Remilia can't help but crack a smile, then says "fine. I want you to find some feather dusters and some cleaning napkins, then I want you to clean all you can."

The two little fairies salute Remilia, saying "yes, miss Remilia!", then rush away, giggling and challenging each other on who's the fastest.

Remilia looks toward where they are headed, then a thud and a crash make her wince, sigh, then think "this is never gonna work."

She looks away from the fairies and turns her thoughts to Flandre, feeling a little happier after forgetting about the fairies.

Struggling with the making of breakfast, Remilia manages to make a more decent-looking meal of red vegetable soup with some meat on the side, and after serving the plates and placing them in the dinner table, Remilia makes her way to Flandre's room, keeping a straight face while feeling proud of herself.

After reaching Flandre's room and opening the door, Remilia says "Flan, I've made us some breakfast, so come to the dining room with me to-"

Remilia stops cold on the doorway after seeing her sister sitting on the floor with her back against the bed, smiling while her eyes glow in the dark.

She breathes loudly through her mouth as her head seems to tilt to the right and says "onee-sama! How are you? I'm so glad you came. I haven't eaten a thing, so I am famished, onee-sama. Te-he, heh."

Remilia can feel a cold chill creep down her spine as she looks at her sister, then looks at the empty plate on the small table, then chuckles nervously and says "I see. W-well then, come on, Flan. Um, are you sure you're fine with this? I could bring your plate down here if you want."

Flandre suddenly shouts "NO!", then calmly says "I want to eat with Remilia onee-sama."

Remilia nods, then smiles and says "a-alright. Let's go and eat, Flandre."

The little blonde vampire stays on the floor, then Remilia says "Flan, come on. You and I are going outside to explore this new home after this, so hurry and get up already."

Flandre sighs slowly and steadily while smiling, creeping Remilia out, then says "I'm sorry onee-sama, but I can't get up. I'm too tired. You'll have to help me."

Remilia tries her best to keep a steady face, but worry escapes her eyes as she approaches her sister, and still, she manages to sound normal as she lifts her sister up by wrapping her arm around her own shoulder, and saying "alright, up we go, then. You'll love breakfast today, Flan. I made it myself."

As they walk out of the room, in a strange undertone, Flandre asks "you don't say, sis?"

* * *

At the dinner table, while Remilia uses her spoon to eat at a slow pace, Flandre devours her meal like a ravenous beast, even throwing away her spoon to just gulp down her plate.

Remilia is full, leaving more than half of her own serving, so Flandre eyes her plate.

Remilia sighs, then says "go ahead, Flan. It's yours."

Flandre smiles and giggles the same way she used to, before the terrible incident, and says "yay~ Thank you onee-sama!"

She grabs her sister's plate and starts eating away with her hands, making Remilia turn her face away in disgust, saying "come on, Flan. Use the spoon. You're a lady after all!"

The loud munching sounds stop and when Remilia looks at her sister, she realizes she's letting her arms hang in the air while looking down at the plate.

Remilia, truly worried, lifts her left arm to reach Flandre's head, and asks "I-I'm sorry, Flan. Are you ok?"

Flandre starts to chuckle softly, Remilia thinking she's going to go berserk again, but when the little sister lifts her head, she holds a spoon on her right hand and playfully says "look, like a lady", then starts to eat the little bits left with the spoon.

Remilia sighs with relief and smiles back at her sister, and just then, the two little fairy maids enter the room, giggling and circling around each other in the air while heading toward Remilia, the blonde fairy saying "miss Remilia, miss Remilia, I cleaned a lot of stuff!"

Before the fairies can reach Remilia, the blonde fairy explodes while in mid-air, her wings fluttering down to the floor.

The little blue haired fairy cries out for her friend, while Remilia turns her sights to her sister, who has her right hand pointed at the fairies and already clenched into a fist, smiling and giggling while doing so.

Flandre turns her eyes to Remilia, as she says "FLAN! What's the matter with you? Those are our new maids!"

Sounding angry, Flandre says "I don't like them!"

The blue haired fairy notices Flandre is looking at her, so she tries to fly away in fright, but Flandre simply giggles and in sing-song, says "I got your eye~, little fly", and clenches her hand, making the second fairy explode in the corridor.

Remilia screams "Flandre, stop, STOP! Don't do that! We need their help!"

Flandre turns her attention to Remilia, glaring at her sister as she says "you were replacing me, weren't you? You were even replacing yourself! I won't let you! I'll kill you first!"

Remilia shouts "Flan, you're not making any sense!"

Flandre starts to fly above the table, and sounding maddened, she smiles, laughs, then shouts "so you really don't like me after all! All those years of FAKE smiles! You never cared for me! All you want is to keep your stupid position as the head of the house! I'm tired of it! I want to be mistress! I want to play outside all day, like you do!"

Remilia stands on the floor next to the table, staring back at Flandre, then says "Flandre, don't do this. You are making a terrible mistake!"

Flandre giggles, then shouts "shut up and play with me already!"

Flandre points her right hand at Remilia and clenches her fist, but Remilia changes her own fate and instead of having herself explode, her chair does, and while Flandre stares at it with surprise, Remilia jumps up and punches her right in the face, sending her crashing down to the floor.

* * *

Flandre stands on the ground, smiling ever so disturbingly while staring back at Remilia, then giggles and says "that hurt, onee-sama. It was a good hit. Now it's my turn."

Flandre seems to have disappeared, but Remilia knows where she is, yet turns around too late to avoid the red sword that striker her shoulder, leaving a large gash that doesn't seem to bother Remilia as she stares back at her sister and says "you... used your weapon against me. Oh Flan, why did you do that?"

Remilia cuts her forearm and uses the blood to create many large scarlet spears, and throws them all straight at Flandre, who gets too scared to move in time and ends up getting hit directly.

Even so, she remains in the air, covering her face with her arms, only getting a few burn marks on her abdomen and face, and a small cut on her arm.

As she slowly lowers her arm, she notices the bit of blood tricking down to her elbow, and at the sight, her eyes expand and tremble, then she screams to the air and unleashes an enormous barrage of red, green, blue and yellow orbs that cover the entire dining room, and start to rain down on to the floor.

Remilia dodges the orbs as best she can, feeling great power on every single one of them, thinking "what's this? She's really attacking me. She's going to kill me. She's really going to kill me! My own sister wants me dead!"

Remilia turns into countless bats, and all scatter around the room, escaping the attack.

Remilia's voice echoes in the room as she says "if this is how you want it, then so be it. I never imagined out fates would bring us to this... Flandre... my sister."

Flandre clenches both hands as she snarls and shouts "stops hiding! Play properly and give me the castle!"

Remilia's voice echoes as she says "Flan, Flan, Flan. If you had come exploring with me you'd know, our home has changed. We are no longer inside a castle."

Flandre covers her ears and screams "no more! No more changing! Stop changing so much! I... I don't wanna~"

She starts shooting thin crimson beams in rapid succession over and over, destroying the dinner table, the chairs, the plates, the fairy wings on the floor, trying to find out where Remilia is.

Quietly, Remilia hovers from above and charges herself up, creating a giant scarlet fire cross, engulfing Flandre in its flames, making her scream out of fright and surprise, and when it stops, Flandre's eyes glow bloody red.

She starts to float back down to the ground, and as she does, she covers her face with her hands and starts to sob.

Remilia, though keeping her neutral and cool face, can't help but feel some guilt for attacking her own sister with such a powerful attack, so she slowly floats back down to her and whispers "Flan... Flandre, I'm sorry. I thought you wanted to kill me so I... Flandre, I'm sorry."

When Remilia is in reach of her sister, Flandre reveals the twisted smile under her hands, her widely open eyes, the scarlet glow in them is so bright it illuminates Remilia, even with the little sunlight entering the room.

Remilia gasps in horror and tries to fly away, but Flandre grabs her arms and sticks her claws through them, then bears a set of large fangs and bites hard on the left side of her abdomen, taking a large chunk of flesh, then rips off both of Remilia's arms, claws her chest down to the rest of her abdomen, and finally, she rips Remilia's head off with a quick chop, then kicks her body away, where she uses her blood-covered right hand and clenches her fist to make it explode.

After a short while, and Flandre start to hyperventilate, she realizes her sister's body isn't fully destroyed, so she decided to finish the job, however, when she sees the lifeless head of her own sister on the floor, and the blood of her own sister all over her dress, hands and arms, she breaks down.

She realizes what she's done and starts to sob for real, then calls "onee-sama. Onee-sama, where are you? Remi, answer me!"

By now, Flandre starts to cry inconsolably, rubbing her eyes with her bloodied hands as she cries away the pain in her heart.

She lost control, and killed the only one that's ever loved her; the only one that showed real care for her.

She cries "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Onee-sama! She's gone, and it's all my fault!"

A strict voice near Flandre's feet says "Flandre! You are a Scarlet! Show some dignity."

Flandre slowly stops her crying and sobbing, and with tears in her eyes she scans the area around her, asking "onee-sama? You're alive? ... Where are you?"

Remilia continues "you really believe you can kill me that easily? Give me a break, Flandre. I'm much stronger and smarter than you think. I hid my heart away from you, so I'll be alright."

Flandre continues to scan around, then Remilia says "down here, Flan."

Flandre looks to the floor between her feet, and on the floor is Remilia's head looking up at her sister.

Flandre grabs Remilia's head and her eyes water again as she says "onee-sama, I'm sorry! I don't know why I did that! Please, don't hate me!"

Remilia sighs and says "I can never hate you Flan, but for now, I'll ask that you go to your room. We will talk about this later."

Flandre rubs the tears from her eyes and cheeks with her bloodied forearms as she says "ok. I'll... go back there. C-come visit me soon."

Flandre sniffles as she places Remilia's head back on the ground, then walks away toward the basement, unaware that her sister's head and body turn to ash after she leaves the room.

Flandre sniffles and sobs as she makes her way back to the basement, while a lone bat hangs in the ceiling above the basement's entrance, slowly covering itself up with its wings as a tiny teardrop trails down to its head and falls to the ground.

* * *

Six days pass after the incident and Flandre refuses to leave her room, while Remilia slowly recovers.

Though able to form her body again, she is severely weakened, her skin looks paler than usual, and one of her wings is yet to grow back, while the other looks small and brittle, and yet even in this state, Remilia has made some progress for the mansion itself.

Through the little strength the possesses now, she has defeated many of the leader fairies that were taking residence around her mansion, and thus, has gained the loyalties of many of the fairies.

To Remilia, this has been a double-edged accomplishment, as fairies are quite useless for anything other than playing, but with so many, the mansion looks clean enough, and some of the fairies have also learned to cook, though their preparation leaves Remilia questioning her meal every time.

Thanks to the fairies, and her own unwavering will, Remilia has managed to keep herself and her sister alive, but just barely, as some of the youkai are trying to take advantage of Remilia's weakness, trying to enter the mansion to take over, only to end up dead under Remilia's claws, and the insane bullet barrage from the fairies.

All seems well, but Remilia's rage does not subside, and her hatred for the unknown land is growing stronger.

She sits on the roughly repaired dinner table with a fork in her mouth while holding the fork's handle with her right hand just slightly, and placing her left elbow on the table and resting her head on her hand.

She lets out an angry sigh, then says "I can't take this shit anymore! I want out of here, NOW!"

The fairy maid in the room gasps after hearing Remilia curse, but Remilia glares back at her, so she keeps quiet, and simply bows her head.

Remilia drops her fork on the table and storms away with an angry face, a face that has taken over her usual calm look, and heads straight to the basement.

Reaching the dirty and messy library, Remilia heads straight to the desks, glaring everywhere, kicking the books on the floor around with all her rage, and when she finally reaches the desk, she looks around for the black book she used to take the now mansion to its current location, but it is not there where she had left it.

Furious, Remilia kicks the desk and knocks it the ground, screaming "where is it? Where the hell is that damned book?"

She looks at the magical circle she had made; it's dried and disappearing, and thinks it might work in that state, but then she holds her head and claws herself, letting some blood run down her forehead as she says "dammit! Dammit all, I can't remember that damned incantation! This isn't possible! It was here, it was here! Where is it now? Where is that damned book now?"

Desperate, Remilia runs around, searching through the many shelves and desks, knocking them over, yet she fails to find the book.

Finally, she finds one of the tallest shelves and eyes it over, hoping the book is on plain sight, but when she fails to find it again, she stick her claws on the sculpted wood designs on the side and struggles to turn the shelf over.

She stops and takes as many breaths as she can before attempting to knock over the shelf again, but it doesn't even budge.

Exhausted, angry, feeling humiliated, defeated and depressed, Remilia surrounds herself in her scarlet magical flames and makes a small red cross of fire as she screams, then drops on her knees on the ground and cries, sobbing while keeping her eyes open for anybody that might come into the library, feeling shame in her current weakness.

Meanwhile, Flandre sits on her bed with a sad and bored face, her once happy eyes filled with much doubt, confusion and sorrow.

The darkness and silence of her room slowly fills her head, her puppy's memory slowly sinking into the darkness, along with all her memories before the attack.

Her old innocence, and her many attempts to control her powers vanish, and only the memories of Remilia remain.

Slowly, she lifts her head and smiles, then her eyes glow blood red, then she whispers "play."

Though there's no answer, Flandre giggles, progressing to a maniacal laughter, and shouts "play~ Play with me! HAH! Ha-ha-ha-hei~ I can hear you, so let's play... Let's play until you BREAK!"

From outside the room, sounds of insane laughter, explosions and shredding fabric take the dark corridor over, making the small group of fairy maids that were cleaning there flee to the upper floors in fright.

* * *

A month later, Remilia has given up on finding that book again, her face showing great discontent and hatred at all times.

Though the mansion looks more lively and clean, its corridors have never looked so dark and gloomy, yet the fairies remain ever loyal to their strong mistress, who has regained all of her strength and power after much rest.

A white haired fairy maid makes her way to the main hall of the mansion, where Remilia remains most of the time, as if awaiting for something to happen, always glaring everywhere, looking out the window, still wondering where she is, yet the hatred she feels for the lands keep her from going outside and finding out.

The little fairy maid pushes a small and elegant cart with a covered white and gold plate, and a white kettle and teacup with a gold linings on the handles and borders.

The fairy maid bows her head and says "your tea, my lady Remilia."

Remilia glares back, acknowledging the fairy's presence, but not saying a single word.

The sound of the tea pouring on the cup covers the entire room, taking over the awkward silence.

After pouring the tea, the little fairy maid flies over to Remilia and offers the cup, thinking Remilia might attack her, due to the constant glare, but instead, Remilia gently takes the cup from her hand.

Relieved, the fairy maid sighs and flies over to the cart, revealing cookies with red blood jelly on them, all slathered unevenly and even dripping down to the plate.

The maid pushes the cart next to Remilia, who looks at the cookies with grimace, then simply picks one up and eats it in one bite, her lips wriggling at the bitter taste of the red jelly.

The maid frightfully asks "my lady, is everything alright?"

Remilia sighs and says "no, it's not. These cookies are too bitter, and this tea is bland!"

The fairy maid bows apologetically and says "I'm so sorry, my lady Remilia. We will try harder next time."

Remilia cracks a vile smile, making the little fairy back away with a small yelp, then lifts the cup as high as her arm can reach, then drops it, letting it shatter on the ground.

The little fairy maid gasps and looks at the broken cup, then back at Remilia.

The mistress' smile quickly turns into a frown, then she suddenly demands "don't just float there, you useless maid! Clean it UP!"

The fairy yelps and hold her head, repeating "I'm sorry! I'll clean it up. I'm sorry!"

Remilia sighs and watches as the little fairy maid rummages through the underside of the cart, looking for a small broom and scoop, and while the maid picks up the cup's pieces, Remilia demands "and I want that cup fixed and ready for the next teatime. If it's not ready, there will be hell to pay!"

The fairy maid almost cries as she picks up the last of the cup and says "y-y-yes! I-it will be ready, my lady!"

Remilia smiles wickedly as the fairy places the broken cup on the tray and rushes out the door, then shouts "I'll be waiting for it!"

The fairy maid is gone, and somehow, even after her mischievous outburst, she feels angrier than before.

She looks out the window, sighs, then says to herself "there no way around it. For now, this place will be my... our home. This cannot wait any longer. I have to go outside... tonight."

* * *

Later, after the sun sets, Remilia goes to Flandre's room, opening the door halfway, and without looking inside she coldly says "Flandre! It's me, your sister. I am going outside to find out where we are. You stay here and DON'T come out of your room until I come get you myself... understood?"

From inside, Flandre glares at the door with her glowing red eyes and says "you need to make eye contact, onee-sama, or else, I cannot hear you."

Remilia angrily pushes the door open, her rage and hatred evident on her face as she glares inside the room and toward Flandre, shouting "you are NOT to come out of this room until I come get you! Understood?"

Flandre's room is a complete mess.

Dolls scattered and ripped open, toys burned, some even turned to ashes, and her mirror, shattered.

Flandre giggles as she looks at her sister from the farthest corner of the room, where she sits curled up with her back against the wall, but after seeing Remilia's eyes her giggling stops, then she says "I will stay in my room... onee-sama. Like a good girl."

Remilia nods and says "good! I won't take too long."

After Remilia slams the door shut and walks away, Flandre starts to giggle again, saying "u, fu, fu. Onee-sama is angry. Flan will make her happy when she returns."

Outside the mansion, Remilia stands right in front of the fully repaired front door, where three fairy maids stand on the floor, awaiting her orders.

Without turning around, Remilia says "if Flandre gets out of her room, stay away from her, but do your best to make her go back. She's very dangerous, so do your best to do it peacefully."

As Remilia relays her instructions, she looks around the ruined garden and sees the first two fairy maids she had.

They look as playful as ever, but when they set their eyes on the rage-filled face of Remilia, they quickly fly away, screaming in fright.

Meanwhile, the other fairy maids bow their heads, and the leader of those three says "will do as you say, miss Remilia."

Remilia suddenly lifts her wings, startling the three fairies, then flaps them hard, making a powerful gust that pushes the three fairies back inside.

With her angry face, she calmly says to herself "tch! Such useless creatures."

* * *

Though flying low, it doesn't take long for Remilia to reach the end of the forest, and the edge of a blood-red body of water.

She stops and lands right on the shore and whispers "blood? No, this isn't blood. This is odd."

She scans the area around, thinking "stupid book. That damned stupid spell stranded me on a lake."

She takes flight once more, flying above the trees this time, following the shores as she says "but this is odd. I've never seen water like this before. Hmm, it seems it's healing itself. Well, it should be back to normal in a few years."

Risking herself a little, Remilia decides to fly higher, then finally realizes her mansion is in the very middle of a small island, which is set in the middle of a large, scarlet colored lake.

After noticing this, she smirks, keeping her scowl as she says "I see. So that's why it changed into a mansion. The castle wants to keep a low profile... probably to protect Flan and me."

After coming full circle, Remilia descends after noticing an irregular mist to the west side of her mansion, so she decides to investigate.

Flying inches above the water, the confident vampire enters the mist and calmly looks around, thinking "I wonder what could be hiding under such a thick mist? I better be careful. I can feel someone strong."

Right after she finishes thinking all that, a large blur tries to tackle her out of the air, but Remilia moves quickly, and manages to kick her attacker to the left.

Smiling confidently, Remilia hovers closer to the water, saying "well young lady, trying to take me by surprise? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not planning on dying today."

Remilia stares at the thin womanly figure as she gets up, standing on the water as if it were solid ground.

Curious, Remilia asks "who are you, and how are you standing on the water like that?"

The woman is tall, and has long scarlet hair that reaches down to her ankles.

She wears a dirty grey rag that's covered with old blood stains.

The woman opens her eyes to reveal a pair of scarlet eyes with lizard-like pupils, and after staring at Remilia, the woman calmly, yet sternly replies "I am Scarlet. This is Scarlet. This Scarlet, and this Scarlet work together to rid the lake from intruders. I have nothing against you, but you are an intruder. If you don't get out of my lake, I will have to kill you."

Remilia smiles and chuckles, then looks back at the woman and says "well, miss Scarlet. It so happens my cas... my mansion... decided to make this place mine, so I'm afraid to inform you that it is YOU who are the intruder here."

The woman widens her eyes and extends her arms, making herself look threatening as sudden wind gusts make the rags on the woman move violently, making a loud flapping sound while doing so.

Remilia keeps her cool, yet hate-filled face as she awaits a response.

The woman lowers her arms, and the mist that surrounds the area slowly disappears, then says "I see. My time here is almost over, and yet, I have a duty to fulfill. Vampire, if you want to claim this land as your own, you will have to kill me for it."

Remilia smiles and threateningly says "I was hoping you'd say that. You see, I'm a little stressed, and I need to take all this rage out on someone."

The woman closes her eyes and sighs, then opens them to look straight into Remilia's eyes, lifting her right hand and preparing an orb of energy right in front of it.

Remilia continues to smile, then asks "wait! Before we begin. Would you be so kind as to tell me, what is the name of this land we're on?"

The woman blinks once, her cold face getting brushed by her own hair as an ominous wind blows from the left, then says "You are in the land known as Gensokyo. Now die with this knowledge and be at peace."

The woman moves so fast, she's already clenching her hand around Remilia's neck, using the energy orb to easily burn her head off, yet Remilia continues to smile, and calmly says "thank you for being so kind, miss. As a token of my appreciation, I'll give you a little hint."

The woman stares into Remilia's defiant and hate-filled eyes, then Remilia uses her claws to cut the woman's forearm and break free from her grip, then says "well, you certainly are tough. My claws alone should have cut that arm of yours off. No matter. As promised, here's your hint."

Remilia prepares a massive scarlet spear, three times the normal size, using the woman's own blood on her claws and shouts "you're going to have to fight harder if you plan to defeat me!"

Remilia lunges the massive spear, but the woman intercepts it with her bare hand and pushes back on Remilia's spear.

Remilia smiles and laughs as the battle begins, and the woman in rags simply stares back with that cold face, effortlessly pushing Remilia and her fiery scarlet spear away.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters and scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

JUL 18 2010

Written by Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**A real struggle this one. Seriously, for me, it's not as easy to write things without some comedy on them... but that's why I am doing this. I need to broaden my skills! And besides, I am sure some drama can be a good read sometimes. Anyway, I do hope you are enjoying this read, and please, leave comments/reviews, and see you next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

**The following contains bloody scenes, so if you don't approve of these, I suggest you hit the back button now. Keep in mind that although I am doing my best to follow ZUN's vague details on the SDM's past, I am still filling those gaps with my own idea, so you may disregard this if you like.

* * *

**

After so many hardships, and many days of rest, Remilia finally regains her full strength, but during that time of recovery, her bitterness got the best of her, and now only feels hatred for her current home, and her frustration only seems to grow as each day pass.

Finally, after many failed attempts to find the magic book that could send them somewhere else, she decides it is time to find out more about her new home, whether she likes it, or not.

Remilia decides to go out one night and explore, only to find out she's living on an island, surrounded by a scarlet lake.

Now, after just starting her exploration, Remilia comes across a powerful youkai that lives surrounded by a thick mist that surrounds the lake, and has threatened to end her life.

Remilia pushes her scarlet spear straight at the face of the crimson haired youkai that attacked her, but the woman holds the fiery spear with her bare hands and pushes her back effortlessly.

Surprised, Remilia stares at the woman and thinks "this is no ordinary youkai. She's holding my Spear of the Gungnir with her bare hands, like it's nothing at all."

Desperate, Remilia uses the other two large spear she holds on her left hand, and tries to sneak an attack to the woman's right, yet the woman easily uses her right hand to stop the attack, while still pushing Remilia and the other spear back with her left.

Remilia smiles as she is pushed back, then says "you certainly are special, lady. To be able to bare this pain for so long."

The woman winces as her hands start to burn, then surprises Remilia by letting herself sink underwater, making the vampire lose control and lunge straight toward a watery death, but Remilia isn't just about to give up without a fight, and throws all three spears to the water, where they explode and cause a momentary vortex that allows her to touch the lake's bottom and jump out safely, before the water settles again and crashes on her.

The woman slowly rises from the depths and walks toward the sizzling spot, thinking Remilia is dead, then turns around and walks away.

Remilia swoops down as silent as she can, ready to strike the woman's back with her claw, but the woman turns around, just as Remilia is inches away from her skin, then kicks the vampire up, opens her mouth, revealing four large fangs amongst her teeth, and fires a fiery-red beam at Remilia, who uses another scarlet spear to deflect it.

After the attack ends, Remilia looks excitedly at the woman, smiling with malice as she thinks "this creature is amazing. I want her!"

Remilia relaxes her eyes, yet her smile remains, then points at the woman and says "you are perfect. You would be a perfect guard for my mansion!"

The woman glares back and replies "no!"

Remilia swoops down, baring her claws ready to strike, shouting "I WASN'T ASKING YOU!"

The woman manages to grab Remilia's arm, and with some effort, keeps her claws away from her face while Remilia says "you see? You stopped me! That's never been done before, especially when I am at my PEAK! You will be a great guardian indeed!"

The woman uses the pressure being used by Remilia herself to try and claw her, and tosses Remilia with all her might to the shore, making her crash against a tree and sending her skidding against three more trees, bringing them all down by force, all before Remilia stops while facing up to the night sky, laughing.

The woman rushes to Remilia, jumping in the air while raising her fist, intending to finish her off, saying "you cannot have Scarlet!"

Remilia continues to smile, even though the woman's deadly fist is right on top of her, and just as that fist lands, her body turns into many vampires that slip right under the woman's attack.

Confused, the woman looks around in fright, trying to find her opponent, unaware that the bat are all gathering right on top of her.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the mansion, the fairy maids all scatter around, trying to fly away from the basement.

Some of them explode for no visible reason, their clothes and wings fluttering to the ground as the insane giggles of Flandre fill the corridors.

The little blonde vampire manages to capture some of the fairy maids, bashing them against the walls to keep them unconscious as she drags them farther into the basement, giggling and innocently saying "a present for onee-sama for when she returns."

A disturbing smile fills the little blonde vampire's face when she speaks in a more sinister undertone, saying "a present to make her happy again", then giggles excitedly.

Back outside, near the lake's shore, the scarlet haired woman in rags relentlessly searches around her surrounding area for Remilia, unaware the vampire has taken her full form already and lurks above, making no sound as she floats down behind the woman.

She reaches for the woman's back, ready so sink her claws into her spine, then the woman turns around with a low kick to Remilia's legs, making her trip and lift to the air, and before Remilia even falls, the woman connects a downward punch, making the vampire bounce hard against the ground, then connects a powerful punch that sends Remilia flying backward against various trees, destroying them in the process.

Remilia finally stops her forceful flight when she sinks her claws on a sturdy rock and manages to stand on her feet, her dress torn and stained with some of her own blood.

Angry, Remilia swipes the bit of blood from her mouth, smiles, then rushes straight back to the woman, reaching her quickly and moving fast around her to confuse her, then manages to kick her upward, sending her to the sky, then throws 6 small scarlet spears at her back, making her scream before falling down to the ground, where the writes around the ground while holding her back with her hands.

Remilia smiles and says "give it up and accept your fate already."

After assimilating with the pain, the woman stands up with a defiant glare, then says "do not stop. You only stop when your opponent is dead."

Remilia smiles and flaps her arm to the right of her own face, pushing away a strand of hair from her eye, then says "my, I'm going to have a most efficient guardian for sure."

The woman rushes to attack once more, saying "I am not your guardian!", trying to land a punch on Remilia's face, only to miss and get hit on the abdomen.

Taking advantage of the moment, the woman grabs Remilia by her hair and punches her face, then tosses the vampire to the air and swings a kick surrounded in a fiery energy, making Remilia retreat after recovering in mid-air, avoiding the woman's attack, yet now has a large tear on her skirt.

Watching her opponent, Remilia thinks "she's strong, and my scarlet spells have little effect on her. I have no choice. I'll have to try that."

Remilia rummages through her right pocket, and after finding what she was looking for, she looks at the woman and smirks.

The woman's eyes glow bright red, then she runs straight at Remilia, lifting her right hand with her fingers straightened out, and aim's for the vampire's neck.

Remilia stands still and simply smiles while waiting for the attack to connect, and just as the woman's fingers brush her skin, Remilia moves slightly to the left and pulls a glowing red dagger from her pocket and stabs it on the woman's right thigh, making her scream and fall to the ground on her face.

Desperate, the woman tries many times to take the dagger off, but a powerful energy shocks her every time she does.

Remilia smiles and says "that pain you feel, coursing through your very bloodstream, is a curse that will drain you from all your strength, and eventually kill you."

The woman clenches her teeth while glaring defiantly at Remilia from the ground, then manages to stand up, ready to continue the fight.

At first, Remilia snarls at the woman with hatred, but smiles, shrugs, then says "if that's the way you want it..."

Remilia rushes to her with all her speed, and once in reach, she claws her chest, her abdomen, the left side of her face, her right leg, her back, then finally grabs her neck and squeezes tightly.

The woman feels as her consciousness drifts away, then softly says "and so... my death finally comes."

Remilia stares into the woman's lizard-like eyes and says "from now on, you will serve me."

She pulls out the curse dagger from the woman's thigh and throws it away, then releases her grip, letting the woman kneel to the ground while coughing, and continues "you will be my servant for the rest of your life. You will devote yourself to serving me and guarding my mansion, until the end of your time."

With those words, a strange gale blows around Remilia and the red haired woman, then the woman slowly closes her right eye and falls unconscious in front of Remilia's feet.

The vampire stares at her new servant, scratches the back of her head, cleans the blood from under her left eye with her bloodied right hand, then says "and now I got myself a new guardian."

* * *

Moments later, Remilia arrives to her mansion, carrying the unconscious woman in her arms, and after landing on the front yard, she gently places her new servant on the ground and looks around, admiring her derelict garden, and feeling disgusted at the sight she says "I'm having the maids deal with this garden immediately. Huh?"

Remilia turns to face her new servant as she starts to wake up, moaning softly.

The woman manages to sit on her knees, looks around for a short moment, admiring her surroundings, then turns her full attention to Remilia, giving the vampire a great surprise.

Her eyes have changed completely, turning into a beautiful aquamarine color, and no signs of her lizard-like pupils.

Her face looks more relaxed and clean, and as she continues to stare at Remilia, the vampire can't help but get lost in her innocent stare as she admires the woman's newfound beauty.

Remilia's cheeks turn a little pink as she stares back, yet keeps her face straight, though keeps her lightly scowled eyebrows as she asks "what is it? You want another fight?"

The woman points at the vampire and whispers incoherently, infuriating Remilia, who shouts "speak up already!"

The woman smiles and says "master."

Remilia is a little surprised, watching how the woman stares at her own hand, as if exploring her body for the first time.

Remilia touches the woman's head and lightly brushes her hands through her face, then grabs her chin and lifts her head to look straight into her now aquamarine eyes.

After staring for a while, Remilia lets her go, and as if addressing a dog, she sternly points down with her right hand and says "stay~ You stay here while I take a look at something."

The woman smiles and nods, then, as if confused, places her hands on her neck and start to squeeze herself lightly, apparently wondering how she nodded.

Remilia takes this chance to fly up as high as she can, then looks around the lake.

The mist that was surrounding the lake before is completely gone, and the water itself seems more calm and bright.

When Remilia looks down, she realizes the woman is flying along with her, holding to her left arm while looking lost and confused.

Remilia angrily asks "didn't I tell you to stay down there?"

The woman simply stares back for a while, then says "master."

Remilia face palms while letting out frustrated sigh, then slowly descends along with the woman, asking "so you know I am your master, right? Do you know what you're supposed to do?"

After landing, the woman nods and says "guard master and home."

Remilia sighs and whispers "good", then stares at the woman and thinks "I wasn't expecting this at all. Changing her fate has completely erased her memory. It's as if her entire past never happened for her. She's a whole new youkai now."

Curious about something, Remilia says "I want you to punch me with all you got."

The woman shakes her head and says "master. Guard."

Remilia sigh, and sounding more aggravated, she commands "I ORDER you to punch me, NOW!"

The woman gasps in fright at the sound of her mistress' commanding voice, and although trembling, she manages to throw a punch surrounded in a multi-colored flames at Remilia, who effortlessly stops her punch.

The woman breathes rapidly with fright, thinking her mistress might kill her, so she curves into a ball on the ground and waits by her mistress' feet.

Remilia simply stares at her and thinks "she lost a lot of her power, yet she's still strong enough. I supposed I can keep her."

Afterward, she places her hand on the woman's shoulder, making her yelp, then asks "hey you, what is your name?"

A little frightened, the woman looks at Remilia, then calms down and smiles.

After sighing impatiently, Remilia asks "do you even have a name?"

The woman smiles as she shakes her head, then Remilia smirks and thinks "so, I get to give you a new name too. Well then, what should I call her? Hmm, let's have some fun here."

Remilia smirks as she pulls the woman to her feet, saying "come on. Get up. I want to get a good look at you", then walks around the woman, admiring her shapely body through the torn, dirty and bloodied rags she's still wearing.

Remilia hums and thinks "this woman is beautiful. Honestly, I could get jealous of her if I weren't so gorgeous myself. Hmm, I'll have the fairy maids cut her hair a little bit... it's too long. Though her scarlet hair surely matches my mansion. Alright, that's it."

Remilia stops when she's right in front of the woman, then stares at her and says "from now on, your name will be Meiling Hong. You are to be the guardian of my proud mansion. You are going to stop any intruder from going inside, even by force if it's necessary. You will also follow my every command without question, but don't think it's all bad. I will make sure you are well fed. I can't have unhappy, scrawny servants. Did you understand what I just said to you?"

Meiling smiles as she looks down to her mistress, then nods and says "Meiling Hong. Guardian for master."

Remilia face palms while shaking her head and sighs, then says to herself "I guess it's fine this way."

* * *

After giving her new guardian her new name, Remilia and Meiling enter the mansion, Remilia looking around the foyer, furiously saying "and where the hell are my maids? Ugh! Useless fairies! They're probably playing somewhere!"

Meiling taps her mistress' shoulder, then Remilia turns around and shouts "what?", only to notice that Meiling is pointing forward.

Remilia turns to look at where Meiling is pointing to and sees a trail of blood and pieces of maid outfits all over the walls and floors.

The vivid image of her recent loss immediately takes her mind, playing over and over again, making her heart beat faster, feeling terror creeping up her spine again, yet she keeps a straight face, the same face she kept when she found her maids all dead before, and seemingly calms, she says "Meiling... come with me, and stay close."

Like a lost child, Meiling clings on to Remilia's left arm and walks alongside her as they both head toward the basement.

As they slowly make their way to the basement, both fear and rage begin to claim the seemingly calm vampire, her face slowly turning form calm and emotionless, to furious and twisted, even snarling lightly while trying to keep her rage hidden from Meiling, who regardless of Remilia's best efforts, has already seen that twisted face.

As they walk further into the basement, dripping and fluttering noises catch Remilia's ear, and before she calls, a fairy maid flies straight to her, hyperventilating and speaking rapidly, saying "miss Remilia, help! Little sister is out and hunting us!"

Remilia looks up to the ceiling and notices a rope on the fairy maid's ankle that reaches all the way up, then immediately cuts the rope with her claw, releasing the fairy maid and walking further inside.

After turning a corner, they find all the missing fairy maids hanging by their ankles by ropes that are tied to the ceiling, their blood dripping to the ground, some even missing their wings.

Some of the fairies are still dead, others unconscious, and a few are starting to revive or regain their consciousness.

Remilia notices some of them have even been adorned with disfigured drawings on their bodies and clothes using their own blood.

Before Remilia asks, Flandre's voice echoes all over the basement as she says "aww, onee-sama got here too quickly. I couldn't break that last one."

The free fairy maid whimpers and trembles behind Meiling, while Remilia strictly demands "Flandre, show yourself!"

Flandre drops from the dark ceiling right on top of Remilia, giving her sister a hug from the back, saying "welcome home, onee-sama!"

Remilia sternly asks "do you know what you have done, Flan?"

A disturbing crescent smile fills Flandre's face as she hisses and says "I made a present for onee-sama. Don't you like it?"

Remilia pulls Flandre from her back and forces her to stand in front, and with her eyes hidden under shadow and sounding furious, Remilia says "no! Flandre, they are our maids, not your toys! What is the matter with you, Flan? You were coming along so well! Snap out of it! Come back to me, Flan!"

By now, Remilia notices her words go completely unnoticed, as Flandre is staring straight at Meiling, placing all her attention on the new servant.

Noticing Flandre's stare, Remilia shouts "Meiling, get out of here! Go!"

Flandre snarls, then smiles and sounding disturbingly happy and dangerous, she says "she's going to play with me!"

Flandre pushes Remilia away, ready to attack Meiling, but Remilia recovers quickly and punches her sister, sending her crashing against the wall, saving Meiling's life.

Remilia looks back and shouts "Meiling, I ORDER you to go, NOW!"

Meiling stares at Remilia with lost eyes, then says "must guard master."

Meiling runs ahead of Remilia, and just as the furious vampire turns around to scold her, she realizes Flandre has her fiery Sword of Loki falling straight at her, however, Meiling grabs the sword with her bare hands and pushes it back, though with great effort.

Remilia notices the fire in the guard's eyes, as though some part of her remembers what she used to be, but admirations will have to wait, as Flandre starts to smile and giggle as she uses even more power, trying to kill Meiling, and enjoying herself while doing so.

* * *

Meiling's arms and legs begin to tremble as Flandre uses more power and strength, smiling wickedly as her sword slowly reaches Meiling's face.

Refusing to allow it, Remilia interferes with Meiling's fate once more, and using one of her spears, she strikes Flandre's rib as hard as she can, canceling Flandre's own sword and saving Meiling.

The guardian looks at her burning hands, and although she feels pain, she doesn't understand what is happening to her, but her attention turn back to the battle when Remilia says "Meiling, you disobedient dragon, now look what you did."

Flandre gets up from the ground, giggling as she sits on her knees, then looks up with a crazed smile and says "that was good, onee-sama! Let's play some more!"

As if knowing what she is doing, Meiling raises her fists and bends her knees, readying herself for the fight, then Remilia sighs and says "fine, you can help me, but we're having a serious discussion about obedience, young lady!"

After turning to face Flandre, Remilia finds herself flying backward with one of Flandre's large crimson orbs on her chest, while Meiling dodges all of the blasts by moving her arms, torso and legs accordingly.

Flandre laughs and smiles as she says "you are fun! You are so much fun! Please don't break too soon! I want to play with you for a long time!"

Meiling simply stares back, awaiting Flandre's next move.

With a mad smile, Flandre lunges herself straight at Meiling, locking her hands with the guard's, staring back at the longing face with her own maddened smile.

As Meiling and Flandre push against each other, Flandre surrounds herself and Meiling with a powerful fiery aura, laughing manically as Meiling grunts and pushes her back.

Remilia finally recovers and immediately rushes in, grabs Flandre, then pushes her back, making her slide all the way under the bleeding fairy maids, which are starting to wake up, one by one.

Flandre looks up at the fairy maids, then one of the blood drops falls on her face, then another, and another.

Flandre smiles widely, then laughs manically as she sits up and looks at Remilia and Meiling.

Hissing, she gets up and slowly points up at Meiling and says "you haven't broken yet! We must play more!"

Ignoring Remilia's spears, taking them head-on as she ruses to Meiling, Flandre's smile grows wider along with her eyes the more damage she receives.

Her clothes are in tatters and torn almost everywhere by now, yet all she wants to do is play her breaking game with the new servant.

When she reaches Meiling, the guard is ready to punch her with a fist surrounded by multi-colored energy, so Flandre responds with a giant scarlet orb.

Meiling unleashes her punch on the orb, causing a powerful explosion that sends her, Remilia and Flandre flying backward.

Remilia gets back up while rubbing her head, then says "these two are going to destroy my mansion at this rate! I have to stop this now!"

Meiling manages to get on her feet, and immediately pulls Remilia back up by her arm, looking worried at her mistress.

Remilia dusts herself and says "it'll take more than that to hurt me, Meiling."

Suddenly Remilia notices the rag Meiling was wearing is barely there; most of it burned off by Flandre's relentless attacks.

Leaving her mouth wide open, Remilia says "Meiling, we need to get you some new clothes."

Meiling looks at herself and gasps, touching her abdomen and looking at it as though it's the first time she's seen it, but her attention suddenly turns to Flandre, whose clothes are almost completely destroyed, having only a piece of cloth around her chest, and only the right side of her skirt.

Still smiling and laughing manically, Flandre summons her scarlet sword again, and although she's starting to breath with some effort, she giggles and says "come on, we still haven't broken! Let's continue playing!"

Meiling prepares for another attack, but instead of rushing forth, Flandre stays where she is, staring with her widened eyes and crescent smile as she continues to giggle.

Her sword disappears again, then a large grid made of green beams surrounds Meiling and Remilia, making them look as though they are trapped in a large bird's cage.

While they look for a way out, a large yellow orb courses through the grid, breaking it apart and sending its pieces at the two girls.

Flandre laughs hard for a moment, then says "don't let it touch you! It burns like hell!"

Remilia glares at Flandre and grabs one of the floating fragments of the green beams, her hands sizzling the moment her skin makes contact with it, yet her face remains the same.

She flies just above Meiling and lands on her arms, then shouts "Meiling, use that rainbow energy and throw me straight at her!"

Meiling quietly nods and surrounds both hands with her energy, surrounding Remilia as well, and holding Remilia like a spear, she throws her straight at Flandre.

The blond vampire watches with surprise as her sister flies straight at her, surrounded in scarlet and rainbow energy while holding on to the green beam fragment, and using that same hand, Remilia punches Flandre on the face, sending her sliding on her back to the other end of the basement corridor with a large burn mark on her cheek.

When she finally stops sliding, Flandre looks up with a smile as Remilia now stands beside her, staring angrily back at her sister while ripping off her own burned hand, then asks "do you see what you are causing here, Flan?"

Flandre giggles and weakly says "that... was fun."

Remilia continues to stare at the crazed expression on Flandre's face, then asks "Flan, are you going to stop this? Are you coming back to me?"

Flandre continues to smile, then finally realizes the pain in Remilia's eyes.

She calms down and frowns, then asks "onee-sama, what happened?"

Remilia sighs and places her hand cupped on her forehead, then says "Flandre, you leave me no choice. I want to ask you to stay in your room, Flan."

Flandre nods and quickly says "ok."

Remilia closes her eyes and shakes her head, then calmly says "no, Flan... I mean for you to stay in your room... to never walk out of those doors until the end of your days. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Flandre sits back up, a tear escaping her left eye as she looks around.

She looks at the fairy maids as they try to get back down, the only free maid trying her best to free all her friends by blasting the ropes, then looks at Meiling and notices the burn marks all over her hands and body.

She looks at her own hands and notices the blood on them, then looks at Remilia and stares at her troubled face and missing hand.

Flandre gets up on her feet and gives Remilia a light hug, then walks to the silver door to her room and before opening it, she turns around and says "I will be good to onee-sama and obey her. I will never come out of this room again... until the end of my days."

She opens the door and walks through, slowly closing it behind herself, and once inside, her eyes glow scarlet and her mad smile seems to illuminate the room, then she sinisterly whispers "unless I get bored. Heh, heh."

After dealing with Flandre, Remilia turns around to find Meiling helping the fairy maids come down from their entrapment, one by one, while the only available fairy maid blasts her companion's ropes, sending them dropping on to the floor, whether yet conscious or not.

Remilia walks toward Meiling and says "Meiling, come with me. I can't have you walking around like that in my mansion. Let's find you some clothes."

Meiling stops helping out the fairies and immediately walks after her mistress, still looking a little lost.

Remilia escorts Meiling to a cozy room, and inside a small closet in the room are a set of Chinese-like clothes in green.

Remilia sighs as she takes the clean set of clothes with her, then says "ugh, if only the maids... Come with me, Meiling. We are going to take a bath, and you are going to put these clothes on. You are going to take good care of them. Now come, let's get cleaned up."

As Remilia and Meiling walk down the corridors, Remilia has Meiling carrying towels with her, as well as a fresh set of clothes for Remilia.

While they walk to the bath room, Remilia gazes at Meiling's new clothes with longing in her eyes, then whispers "Flandre used to love our last guard so much. Too bad she..."

Meiling stares at Remilia through the corner of her eyes, then manages to free one of her arms to gently pat Remilia on the head.

The vampire is too distracted to take notice, so Meiling simply continues to try and comfort her master.

* * *

Three months later.

Remilia returns to her mansion just as the sun starts to rise, and lands next to the gates, where Meiling immediately, and with great effort, manages to say "has... a nice trip."

Remilia sighs and says "no, Meiling. That is what you say to me when I leave."

Meiling stares at Remilia with curiosity, then Remilia continues "when I get back home, you are to properly greet me by saying 'welcome home, my lady'. Understood?"

Meiling stares at Remilia for a little longer, then smiles and with some effort says "wel... come... home... My lady! Welcome home... my lady."

Remilia smiles proudly and says "well done, Meiling. I guess you are learning something after all."

Remilia suddenly takes notice of all the bodies of dead youkai surrounding the gate, then notices Meiling's hands, uniform and face are covered in blood.

Angry, Remilia asks "what the hell is this?"

Meiling whimpers and shivers while backing away, then says "intru... ders. They were intruders."

Remilia sighs as she places a hand on her own left eye, then rapidly takes it away and says "Meiling, part of your job is to make sure this area is clean when I get here! I mean, look at this mess! And look at you! How dare you present yourself to me looking like that? Ugh! Clearly, you need much more training."

By now, Remilia notices Meiling is staring at her with tearful eyes, so she tries her best to calm herself down and says "whatever. Just help me carry some of these inside. After that, I want you and some of the fairy maids to do something about the rest of these corpses. And do get yourself cleaned up."

Meiling quietly nods, then grabs four corpses, two on her shoulders and two on each hand, then follows after Remilia, who grabs two more.

Before they go inside, Remilia takes notice of her garden. It's cleaner than she remembers it, and she also sees some sprouts on the soil.

She looks back at Meiling and asks "who cleaned this garden? Was it you?"

Meiling smiles and nods, making Remilia smirk and say "I see. Well then, after you clean yourself up, I want you and the fairy maids to take care of this garden. I want those vines gone, and... well, make it look nice and clean, alright?"

Meiling nods, then she and Remilia head inside with the corpses on hand.

The rest of the day passes by quickly.

While Remilia sleeps, some fairy maids at the kitchen prepare and store the meat and blood from the youkai corpses brought in earlier.

Some of the fairies are jumpy, and any sudden noise makes them jump in place or hide, still remembering what happened with Flandre.

Others, the ones that had died that night, have forgotten everything and continue living as normal as ever, fluttering about, almost cleaning everything they may find dirty in the mansion.

Outside the mansion, Meiling and some fairy maids follow Remilia's mandate, and are tending to the garden, surprisingly, not missing any details.

Even more surprising is Meiling, who is taking this job more seriously than her guard duties, and eagerly plants flower seeds after preparing specific spots on the ground with her bare hands.

Night comes again, and after her meal, Remilia decides to take Flandre's meal to her room herself.

Opening the door to the dark room, Remilia whispers "Flan~ It's me, Remilia."

Remilia is greeted by a pair of glowing red eyes that seem to glare at her from the bed, but the voice of her sister comes through quite normally as she says "onee-sama, I've missed you!"

Remilia smiles with relief and says "so you're awake. I've brought you your dinner, Flan. I'll just leave the plate here for you. A maid will come pick it up when you're done."

Sounding disappointed, Flandre asks "eh? You're leaving already?"

Remilia nods and says "I need to take care of something very important, so I must leave soon. Sorry I couldn't say longer."

Flandre Reveals herself from the darkness, her face looking a little twisted as she smiles at her sister, then gives her a very light hug.

Remilia hugs her back, then says "I'll try to stay longer next time, Flan."

Sounding a bit sinister, Flandre looks at Remilia and says "I understand. After all, my sister is the mistress of this mansion."

The sudden shock and surprise becomes evident in Remilia's face, but before she manages to ask Flandre how she knows about the mansion, Flandre giggles and says "I'm not deaf, onee-sama. I've heard you and the maids talk about it. It's ok, I understand now. You don't have to worry about me."

Remilia wants to grab Flandre and take her with her outside, but the thought of Flandre losing control outside the mansion walls frightens her more than anything, so she just sighs and says "glad to see you are doing well, Flan. I'll see you later."

Flandre smiles as Remilia closes the door, and with a wicked smile and sinister voice, she says "don't keep me waiting so much onee-sama. Little Flandre misses you very much."

Outside the gates, Remilia says to Meiling "I'm going to investigate that settlement I saw yesterday. You keep the mansion safe, and remember to keep everything clean."

Meiling salutes Remilia and with some effort, she says "ha-ha... ve... a safe... trip."

Remilia stares back at her gate guard, but says nothing and flies away.

* * *

Far away from the lake where Remilia's mansion hides, is a small human village, surrounded by a wooden wall with three gates on it.

One to the east, headed toward a small shrine on a mountain after a long, long road.

Another exit lies to the west, and another to the north.

Many houses are settled in, some empty due to their owners being devoured by youkai when outside the safety of the village's walls.

In the center of this village, there is a large house that seems to be abandoned, as the outside looks derelict.

The windows are extremely dirty, vines are growing all the way up to the roof, some of the windows have been covered by small wooden planks that have been nailed on, and the outside walls of the house look dirty, and in desperate need of repair.

Signs of life quickly becomes evident when smoke starts to rise from the chimney, and a faint light begins to glow from inside, though it's hardly seen through the dirty windows.

It's late noon, and a group of young humans rush to the house, and through the crack of one of the boards that covers a broken window, they spy on a young-looking woman.

The woman has long brown hair that reaches to her lower back, tied with a small ribbon on each side, and wears a long purple robe over what looks like a long, vertically striped, purple and lilac pajama.

She sits on a small rocking chair with a book on her lap, and her robe and pajama lift up enough to reveal the lilac sleeping sandals with ribbons she wears for shoes.

The woman looks to the window and the young humans run away and scatter, speaking excitedly amongst themselves.

One of the males says "crap, that witch saw us!"

One of the girls angrily says "run before she turns you into a frog or something."

Another of the girls adds "disgusting hag! Probably used a potion to look beautiful."

The young man laughs and says "yeah. Probably uses human blood or something."

They all laugh as they run away, unaware that the woman is watching them from the window they were peeking through.

With her seemingly uncaring purple eyes staring, she sighs, then turns around and goes back to her chair to read her book.

Inside the large house, the woman adorns everything with stacks and stacks of books of different materials, though the majority are books on magic and spell casting, as well as potions and charms.

There is a small bed on one of the smallest rooms, and it's also covered in books, as well as a small, empty pantry near a dirty little kitchen.

The woman sits close to the fireplace while silently reading her book with great attention, especially on how to make a special charm in the shape of a crescent moon.

She suddenly closes her book and looks around her house, then gets up from her chair and starts rummaging everywhere.

She looks through a small and seemingly empty shelf, and with a light smile on her face, she pulls out a small black stone that shines against the light from the chimney's fire.

After that, she rushes to her kitchen and finds a golden plate that seems it was from a larger kitchen set, though the only remaining item from that set is a simple-looking golden cup.

After placing the stone and the plate on a small round table, she rushes to the tiny bedroom and jumps on her bed, avoiding stepping on the books, then opens a small cabinet that hangs right above the bed and pulls two vials from inside; one full of a pink liquid, and the thinner one filled with a green and gooey liquid.

The thin vial falls from her hands and goes straight to the floor, but after the woman mutters quickly, the vial start to float, avoiding being shattered and spilled on the floor.

The girl sighs and smiles, then suddenly starts to cough and the vial drops to the ground, though it doesn't shatter.

Taking her time to recover her breath after coughing so vigorously, the woman jumps out of her bed, looking almost as though she flew, then lands on the floor next to the vial, picks it up, and with a smile on her face she rushes back to the large living room where the other two items she picked wait for her.

Finally, she goes back to her kitchen and opens a large cabinet that contains a single large, black cauldron.

With a happy sigh and light smile, the woman grabs the cauldron, and with great effort, she takes it back to the living room.

After mixing in the ingredients; first pouring the green gooey substance, then the rock, then the pink liquid, and finally the golden plate, she grabs her book again and speaks an incantation.

After the cauldron starts glowing, she closes her eyes and smiles, then says "I hope it works."

The light stops and the cauldron now looks empty.

The woman frowns and whimpers, thinking the enchantment failed.

She looks inside the cauldron, the gasps with excitement as she smiles wide, then excitedly puts her hand inside and pulls a small crescent gold moon.

She hugs it and twirls in place, then lifts it in the air as if trying to show it off, then remembers she is alone.

Her excitement rapidly leaves her as she looks around, and with a frown on her face, she says to herself "that's right. All I have is you... my books."

Suddenly, her stomach starts to grumble, making her finally realize she is starving. She sighs and immediately heads to her kitchen, and after looking through all the cabinets and the small pantry, she realizes there is no food left.

Looking a little frightened, the woman says "I need to buy food."

* * *

As the woman walks out of her house with a medium sized basket on her left arm, she grabs her hat from a rack next to the door, then places her new crescent moon on it.

With a small smile on her face, she looks at the door and her smile immediately vanishes.

She walks out her door with evident fear in her eyes, then heads to the market area.

By now night has taken over and many of the shops are closed, as well as there are less people now, so it's a bit more comfortable for the woman to do her quick shopping.

After picking some bread, fruits, vegetables and some tofu, the woman pays the glaring store owner, trying to smile at him to soften him up, but she feels a bit afraid, so her smile falls short.

She quickly hears the whispers of a couple as they speak to each other.

The woman whispers "hey look, it's that weird witch."

The man whispers back "let's get away from her before she does something weird."

The quiet woman rapidly turns around, a tear clinging under her left eye, then opens her mouth to speak and defend herself, but she notices the few villagers there are all glaring and her fear gets the best of her.

She turns around again with a red face and hurries away, but not before hearing the villagers whispering amongst themselves.

One says "I thought something would come out of her mouth."

Another says "she's so gloomy. She's like a ghost."

A woman adds "she's better off being dead anyway."

Another woman says "no wonder she doesn't have any friends. She's too damned weird."

A man adds "why won't she just leave us?"

The woman quickens her pace, her eyes hiding under shadow as she cries back to her home.

After the long walk back home, the woman has finally calmed down, and the sight of her home sets her heart at ease, but before she is even close to the door, she turns her attention to her left, where a voice calls "pst. Pst! You, over here. There's a strange book that fell from the sky just now."

The woman stops completely and continues to stare toward the voice.

Her love for books kicks in, and her desire to investigate becomes strong, yet something inside her warns her of danger.

She ignores this feeling and goes straight toward the voice, her eyes starting to gleam with excitement as gets closer.

On the ground, right next to her house, lies a small book with a purple cover.

She rushes to pick it up with a smile, only to realizes it's not even heavy, and as soon as she opens it up she realizes it's been stuffed with feathers between the very few blank pages it has.

A man's voice shouts "NOW!", and water comes pouring down on her from a bucket on her ceiling, and tied to this bucket is a long rope that goes all the way toward a bearded man, hiding behind some boxes.

Frightened, the man shouts "she's not melting! The book said she would melt!"

The woman is soaking wet, all her food now lies on the ground, her bread ruined and all her fruits and vegetables wet and dirty on the ground.

While a group of men angrily speak amongst themselves, calling her a witch, and loudly planning on their next attempt to murder her, the woman starts remembering days past.

The people always avoid her and call her names on her back when they think she isn't listening.

The children call her an evil witch, even though she tells them she's not evil.

She remember herself crying in the safety of her home while her closest neighbors knock on her door, demanding her to come out and explain the death of their cats.

She remembers shouting from inside, drowning in her own tears, telling them she'd never hurt anyone.

She even remembers one time when she got back to her home, how someone had taken her own cat, poisoned the creature, then tied its tail to a rope above her door with a sign that read "Get Out"

The woman slowly returns from her thoughts, only to find the men bombarding her with eggs, repeating "evil dies when brought to the light!", chanting this over and over while attacking her.

One of the men loses his temper and throws a rock at her, hitting her on the right of her forehead, making her kneel on the ground while holding her head, blood dripping from her forehead to the ground.

The woman can't take much more; she can't even feel the pain from that large gash on her head, then in a sudden burst of rage the woman rises to her feet, screaming enraged at the top of her lungs, her brown hair suddenly changing to purple as large daggers rise from the ground behind her and fly straight toward the man that threw the rock, falling dead on his back in an instant after the daggers strike him.

The other men fall silent, and while trembling, the bearded man points at her and says "sh-she's revealed herself!"

Another shouts "get the Hakurei maiden!", while the woman's closest neighbors all walk out of their homes, glaring at her.

* * *

The woman realizes she just killed a man, and fear immediately takes over her.

She knows she has crossed a very dangerous line, and there is no way for her to turn back now.

She tries to run back to her house as fast as she can, but she quickly realizes there are two men with pitchforks standing too close to her door.

She tries to run back to the market, but realizes a woman with a dagger, and two men with wooden stakes walk closer to her.

There is nowhere to run as the villagers encircle her, trapping her against the walls of her own house.

The woman screams "I'm sorry! I just got so mad! I swear, I didn't mean-"

The woman ducks in time to avoid a large butcher knife that was headed straight to her face, and while cowering on the ground, she crawls toward her house, placing her back against the wall, then shouts "I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"

The villagers get closer, encircling her like an animal, a woman saying "I knew it! It was just a matter of time before she'd kill someone!"

A man shouts "hah! She's probably killed others by now!"

Another shouts "don't let her escape!"

The woman looks up at her attackers with tears in her eyes, shouting "no, you can't! NO!"

A hand reaches for her, but before it touches her, her eyes start to glow blue, a magical wind starts blowing around her, she starts to hover just above the ground, then she starts muttering a spell.

A woman screams "hide! Hide! She's going to kill us all!"

Before the attackers can run, the woman gets surrounded by many blue orbs that drop like countless bubbles toward the villagers.

When these bubbles touch the first victim, the explosion caused by them causes the man to lose half of his torso, then three laser beams that fly from the woman's fingertips go straight through the woman with the knife, making three small holes, two on her chest and another on her abdomen, and that's when the villagers all panic and try to run away.

Another man falls victim of the exploding bubbles, then another falls victims to the lasers.

The villagers scatter, the woman's neighbors all entering their homes to take their children away, then it all stops.

When the woman regains her senses, she realizes she has a total of seven dead villagers around her.

Her eyes open wide, her pupils shrink, her mouth wriggles as it turns into an insane smile, then she starts to hyperventilate.

Raising her right hand in the air, the woman summons a larger set of lasers that move slowly in a circle, destroying the walls from the houses of her neighbors, as well as her own house's wall.

Laughing manically, the woman continues to fly higher as she unleashes her beams and magical orbs on the villagers, but then she stops and looks around her.

She falls hard to the ground, where she starts to scream while her tears and blood from her wound run through her face.

She can't take much more and points her own hand at herself, preparing to end her life with a blast from one of her own spells, but a call from a villager gets her attention.

A man screams out loud "VAMPIRE!"

All the villagers in the area scream in fear, some calling for the Hakurei maiden as they all run away.

Remilia stands on the woman's roof, looking curiously at the situation while thinking "this woman would be a great asset to my mansion."

Finally, after the villagers leave the area, Remilia floats down, revealing herself to the woman, extending her hand, asking "how would you like it if you could live in the greatest library ever known, a place where you could practice your magic and experiment in peace; a place you could call home?"

The woman stares back at the vampire with a lost and frightened expression, while still holding her own hand pointed at her head.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

JUL 25 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**For those of you wondering, yes I have read a doujin for Remilia and Flandre's past story, as well as one for Meiling, and COUNTLESS for Sakuya. Being honest, I am using my vague memory of these manga to visualize the scenes, though res assured, I am doing my best to keep it original, as well as keep the canonical things in place, as they should. Also, from a question in the reviews; I know I answered this already but: The name for Shurelia I got as a suggestion from a friend, seeing as I needed to name the chief maid in order to give her move of a personality. Honestly, I was just going to call her "chief maid" but doing that wouldn't do much for the story.**

**Anyway, thank you all for reading, and I am glad you are liking my view of the SDM's past story. Again, I am trying to be as faithful to ZUN's vague information, and filling in the gaps on my own, using some doujins I've read as base for visualization. This is really hard for me to write, but it's starting to become a little easier now. Well, thank you again for reading and please leave a review/comment. I really appreciate those, and they let me know if I am doing a good job or not. Until next chapter. Take care.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:**

**This fiction contains bloody scenes, so if you don't like those, please hit the back button. Also, although I am trying my best to write the canon back story for the Scarlet Devil Mansion cast, keep in mind that ZUN is vague with his information, and most I have filled with what I believe happened. He loves it when fans do that, doesn't he? My point is that you may disregard this if you wish. Please review/comment, and thank you for reading.

* * *

**

Even though she's gained a new servant, Remilia feels distraught at the loss of her sister.

Having to ask her to stay in her room forever, to her it feels the same as though having sealed her loving sister for eternity.

Though she hides these feelings well from others, she is starting to realize her sister is lost, and to her, there is no way to ever bring her back.

Yet she continues, living each day, trying to teach her new guard how to do her job, as well as how to speak.

She feels pressure from many sides now, and is starting to leave her mansion a little too often, exploring the land she still hates, and that is no exception on this night; the night she decides to visit the human settlement, that to her great comfort, lies away from her home.

She lands on the roof of one of the largest houses in the village's center in order to watch certain events take place, where various of the villagers are trying to kill one of their own, just because she uses magic.

She watches as the woman loses her mind and starts attacking her attackers relentlessly, killing quite a few of them in just minutes.

After the woman falls to the ground, ready to take her own life, Remilia reveals herself to her and the villagers, scaring them all away, then extends her hand to the woman, offering a new home and a new life.

The woman stares up to Remilia with tears in her eyes, her entire body shaking uncontrollably as she points her hand at herself and readies a spell to kill herself.

Remilia smiles and says "you'll care for my own library, which lies in the basement of my mansion. It's so large and full of books, it could be called an 'Eternal Library'. Think about it. Nobody there will ever dare to judge you as long as you have me there. Yes, I would be like your friend, if you want."

The woman starts to whimper as she slowly lowers her hand and calls off her spell, staring into Remilia's glowing eyes.

She trembles violently as she turns around and sees the butcher's knife that almost took her life, still stuck on her house's wall, then trembles even more violently as turns her maddened face back to Remilia.

Being the impatient vampire that she is, Remilia excitedly urges "take my hand already! Unless you want to go back to that dinky and derelict house. Stay here, surrounded by these fools."

The woman suddenly stops trembling, and in an impulse, she throws her hand at Remilia's, who grasps it with a smile and glowing red eyes as she says "good. Let's get going."

Remilia tries to lift the purple-haired woman to her feet, but quickly realizes she can't stand up on her own just yet, so before the woman falls down, Remilia flies up and grabs the back of her robe, then pulls her up along with herself.

As they fly above the market area, Remilia looks down and notices some bread being displayed in a small kiosk, so she swoops down, saying "that's right, I'm gonna need some human food for you", and grabbing a lump of bread at the same time she tosses some coins inside an empty cup next to the surprised shop owner.

As they fly away, Remilia says "how strange. He still has good bread at this hour. Oh well, it's better for us, right?"

The woman lets out a sob, so Remilia sighs with frustration and says "oh great, another quiet one."

The few villagers and shop keepers in the area look surprised at the woman being carried off by the vampire, and one of the frightened men asks "wa... was that a vampire?"

A woman replies "by the gods! She had one of us with her!"

The surprised shop keeper, who drops the boxes he was storing for the night, looks up and says "someone get the shrine maiden."

A man with a knife stuck on his shoulder struggles to stand, and taking the other villagers by surprise and with some effort, he manages to say "DON'T! Don't bother!", and after getting the attention of the other villagers, he continues "she took... that murderous witch... with her! Let her die... pay for all the lives she took! UGH!"

With his last breath, the man falls on his face, cursing the purple-haired woman, and revealing a large chunk of flesh missing from his back, making a total of eight deaths caused by the purple-haired woman's loss of control.

The women and men gasp and scream at the sight of the man as his blood stains the ground in front of a small fruit stand.

* * *

Later that night, Remilia holds the woman while hovering above the gates of her mansion, staring at Meiling as she starts dozing off in front of the gate.

Remilia slowly descends, and immediately places the woman on the ground, where she whimpers as she crawls backward and stops when she hits a tree, waking Meiling and getting her full attention.

The gate guard frowns and stances ready to attack, saying "intruder!", but Remilia stands in front of the woman, placing a hand in front of Meiling's face, and staring back sternly at her servant.

Remilia looks around, as though expecting something, then stares at Meiling and says "she is not an intruder. She is a servant... a friend."

Meiling lowers her guard, then stares at the lump of bread on Remilia's hand with hungry eyes.

Remilia sighs as she breaks off a large piece and says "fine, you can have some. Now, girl, what's your...?"

While Meiling happily nibbles on her piece of bread, Remilia turns around and gets surprised at the sight of the woman hiding her face under her knees, curling into a ball while trembling and whimpering.

Remilia face palms and asks "you really think we're going to kill you after I went out of my way to save you twice?"

The woman slowly lifts her head, then softly says "I'm... hungry."

Remilia's lips wriggle after that unexpected answer, then recovers and shrugs while turning around, heading inside her mansion and saying "Meiling, bring her to the dining room", and as soon as Meiling picks the woman up like a princess with just one arm, while still nibbling on her own piece of bread, Remilia tosses the lump of bread at the woman and continues "you may eat on the way if you like, but it would be more appropriate if you wait until you're are the dinner table."

Moments later, at the dinner table, the purple haired woman starts eating pieces of bread she picks with her fingers, admiring her surrounding while keeping caution.

She starts to realize she's inside the mansion of a vampire, and that there is a youkai woman of admirable strength standing close to her, and now fear starts taking over her again.

Unable to finish her bread, since her stomach starts feeling as though someone's wrenching it, she observes as a fairy maid flies in with a plate of food for Remilia, paying close attention to the red sauce that adorns the food.

Remilia notices the woman's curious stare and as if knowing what the woman is thinking, she says "yes, you are correct. This is blood. However, it's not human... and sadly, those spells you used stained the blood of those other humans. A pity, as I truly miss the taste of human blood."

Meiling stares at Remilia with both curiosity and longing, then asks "human... good? Food?"

Remilia glares at Meiling and says "don't you dare touch her! She's to care for my library! Hmm, wait, now that I think about it, I still don't know your name, miss."

The woman nervously looks around, trying to keep her nervous eyes away from Meiling, who for some reason continues to stare at her.

She looks at Remilia and notices her impatience growing, so the softly and nervously says "my-my name? My name is... P-Patchouli, miss?"

Remilia stares at her clean fork for a moment, then looks back at Patchouli and asks "just that, huh? Patchouli? No family name?"

Patchouli winces, thinking she made the vampire angry, so she thinks for a bit, takes a deep breath to calm herself down, then says "you, um, may call me Patchouli Knowledge if you want."

Remilia smirks, then lets out a quick laugh, knowing full well this woman has just made up a family name out of the blue, but instead of finding this insulting, she thinks it's amusing.

After staring at Patchouli for a while, Remilia drops her fork and jumps off her chair, then walks toward the still nervous woman and says "well, miss Patchouli '_Knowledge_', welcome to my mansion. If you were so kind as to accompany me, I'll immediately take you to your... what?"

Remilia notices how Patchouli stares at Meiling, who keeps touching her hat, then her own scarlet hair, as if wanting a hat of her own.

Patchouli looks at Remilia, noticing her impatient eyes, knowing full well she just ignored the mistress of the mansion, then softly says "um... I-I'm sorry, but it seems miss, um, Meiling wants a hat too."

Remilia's eyes glow bright red for a moment, showing the surge of anger that's just passed through her entire being, so Patchouli hurries and says "I'm sorry, it's just that I believe it would be prudent to get one for her... to, um... keep her happy... with her working environment... miss Remilia."

Remilia stares sternly at the two girls for a moment, making them both very nervous, then smiles and says "Hmm, you're already showing me you're high quality, Patchouli. Fine, I'll find her something suitable. In the meantime, I want you to come with me to the library... oh, but before that, there is someone you have to meet."

* * *

Moments later, Remilia and Patchouli stand in front of Flandre's silver door, then Remilia says "you are going to meet my sister. Her name is Flandre Scarlet, and she is very dangerous, so whatever you do, stay outside, and let me do the talking."

Patchouli quietly and nervously nods, bowing her body very rapidly, then Remilia slowly opens the door, saying "Flan, I want you to meet our newest servant."

There is no answer from the dark room, so Remilia peeks inside and asks "Flan, are you awake?"

Without waiting for the order, Patchouli raises her hand, and a bright orb of light that sits on the palm of her hand illuminates half of the room, revealing Flandre hanging on the ceiling, her eyes completely red as she bares her fangs.

Frightened by sight, Patchouli instinctively unleashes her magical bubbles and backs away, just as Flandre swoops down to attack.

The bubbles explode on Flandre's face, making her scream out loud and back away from the door, as far into a corner of the room as she can, even trying to get into her closet.

Patchouli's eyes show the terror in her face; having attacked the mistress' sister will cost her dear life, but again she is surprised.

Instead of getting angry, Remilia stares at Patchouli with awe and says "ah~, although you are weaker than us, you can use water spells. Well Flan, I hope you learned not to attack our servants again."

Flandre whimpers and shouts "onee-sama, you're mean! Scold her already!"

Remilia replies "but you attacked her first."

Flandre starts to sob and says "onee-sama hates me!"

Patchouli summons some courage to herself and takes one step inside the dark room, then bows and softly says "I am so sorry, miss. P-please forgive me."

Remilia grabs Patchouli by the back of her robe and pulls her out of the room again while saying "you see, Flan? She apologized. You should follow her example!"

Flandre is suddenly standing next to the door, revealing herself under a dim light, then bows and says "I am sorry too. And next time, we play until you break."

With a wide smile and a sinister laugh, Flandre slowly closes her door by herself and says "I'll be here when you want to play. Just like onee-sama asked."

After the door closes, Patchouli stares at Remilia, and notices a terrible pain hidden deep within her eyes, but she decides to keep quiet about it, thinking she's already done enough damage as it is.

Remilia turns her attention to Patchouli, seemingly calm, then says "come. I'll take you to the library now."

Walking back toward the basement stairs, it only takes them a couple of minutes before Remilia stops in front of two large doors and says "and here we are. My library."

When Remilia opens those door to the dark library, Patchouli's eyes open wide as she admires the countless books all over the room.

Stack after stack, shelf after shelf, reaching up to the dark ceiling, all filled with books of all sizes and colors.

Patchouli enters the room while still looking around with such awe in her face, then she notices Remilia's stare, drops to her knees out of her overwhelming excitement, then softly asks "a-are you sure? You want this... human to care for such... such magnificent library?"

Remilia smirks wickedly and says "not only will you care for it. You will also learn the many spells in these books, and you will instruct me about them, with the outmost of detail. Also..."

Remilia gets closer to Patchouli, helping her on to her feet, then whispers "I need your help with two things. First, I need you to find me a very special book. It has a black cover, titled 'Ancient Arcane Spells'. You are to inform me immediately, should you find it, no matter what."

Patchouli silently nods, then Remilia whispers "the second thing... would be Meiling..."

* * *

The morning after, at the Human Village, only the sound of sobbing and crying, as well as mournful chanting fill the atmosphere of the village, replacing the usual busy energy of the humans as they go through their daily lives.

Most of the villagers stand around the center of the village, creating a giant circle around eight large coffins that carry the bodies of their murdered comrades.

In the center of this circle are the families of the deceased, and the young maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu Hakurei.

She wears her long red pants and long-sleeved white kimono shirt, and her hair looks dark brown, almost black, but the light that shines against it make it look purple.

She offers a prayer to the last coffin, then the man next to it, one of Patchouli's attackers, clenches both fists and his teeth, snarls, then says "after that... WITCH killed my wife, she was taken away by a vampire. Good riddance!"

Reimu stares at the man with a reprehensive glare and asks "you speak like that about one of your own?"

A woman standing next to one of the first coffins shouts "she was evil! I am still appalled you did nothing to seal her!"

Reimu glares back at the woman and says "oh sure, and leave her defenseless to your attacks! Yeah, that's fair."

A man from the crowd angrily asks "how can you side with that monster?"

The young maiden sighs while rubbing her forehead, then says "you are incredible. She never attacked you once before this, then you attack her and cause all of this, you want me to hunt her down because of your mistake, and you just want to leave her to die by the hands of a vampire. A vampire that can easily use her powers against us."

The villagers all look down to the ground, all feeling frustrated when they are unable to find a proper excuse for their actions, then Reimu continues "now I'm gonna have to hunt that vampire down before-"

The young maiden looks up to the sky and notices many youkai flying in the sky, fighting each other while heading toward what looks like giant floating ruins.

One of the elders approaches Reimu with concern and says "miss maiden, you better look into this first! It seems dangerous."

Reimu smirks and calls "GENJII~", then a large round shadow is cast right above Reimu, and to her left lands the old, bearded, large flying turtle, Genjii.

As soon as she gets on his back they start flying, then Reimu says "I'll come and perform the burial ceremony as soon as I solve this incident."

With a smile on her face, Reimu points at the ruins and shouts "let's go, Genjii! Let's see what is going on over there!"

The villagers stare at Reimu and Genjii as they make their way to the sky, some villagers wondering if the maiden is too excited about the sudden turn of events.

After she leaves, a young boy and girl stand in front of the magician's large house, then kneel down to pray.

The other villagers glare at them, then another young girl steps up and shouts "the maiden is right! What we did was terrible! All we did was torture that girl and she never even said a word! We want this to change! We want to live in peace!"

While the adult villagers glare at the young boys and girls that offer a small prayer to the large house, a single elder, the one that approached Reimu, smiles and says to himself "we have a bright future ahead of us."

* * *

Three days later, at the Scarlet Mansion. It's morning, and Meiling looks happier than ever, hugging a green beret she got from Remilia and Patchouli.

She looks at the star on the top and reads the word "dragon" on it.

She gasps and smiles, and hugs it again, then places it on her head and stands firm in front of the mansion's gates, ready to repel any intruder.

Meanwhile, inside the mansion, down the basement and deep into the dark library's center, Patchouli has fallen asleep on the desk with her face buried in a book, but even asleep, something torments her.

She groans and whimpers, clenches her eyes, gasps, hyperventilates, softly says "no... it was... and accident."

She starts to moan and move her legs as though trying to run, then wakes up and springs up straight on her chair while screaming "don't kill me!"

Frantically, she looks around and slowly realizes she's in the mansion's library, safe and away from the villagers.

She notices the sweat running through her face down her neck, then yelps in surprise when a thick brown book falls right in front of her with a loud bang.

She looks at the book and reads "spells for to self?", then looks up and notices a woman with short red hair, two pairs of bat-like wings, one pair on her back and the other on her head, and wearing a small brown cloth to barely cover her body.

She glares at Patchouli and whispers "drat, she moved", before hiding behind a bookshelf, hiding in the darkness before saying "you should read that. It'll help you with those nightmares of yours."

Patchouli continues to look at where the little demon girl was for a moment, then turns her attention to the book, and indeed, after opening it and going through the pages, she quickly finds a spell for blocking selective memories.

She looks back to where the devil was, thinking of asking her where she found that book, yet her strong desire to completely forget her past in the village pulls her back to her book, then quietly reads the spell.

After just a few hours, Patchouli memorizes the spell and writes a blue magical circle on her own forehead with the help of a small mirror stored inside one of the desk's drawers.

Crying, she looks into the mirror and says to herself "after you do this, Patchouli Knowledge, you will be even more grateful to Remilia. She saved you *sob* and she brought you home. Th-that, and your spells. That is all you need to remember."

After one loud sob, Patchouli points her finger at the magical circle on her forehead, and as soon as she touches it, it starts to glow and spin.

She closes her eyes and feels as though her body is being lifted to the air, even though she is still sitting on her chair, and after the circle suddenly vanishes and the spell ends, Patchouli opens her uncaring eyes and looks around again.

She feels calm, and somehow happy, and feels a great sense of appreciation for Remilia, yet she can't remember exactly why.

All she knows is that she is home, and now feels eager to find books on elemental spells.

Flying around the library, she asks herself "elemental spells... where can I find books on elemental spells?"

She finds the little demon woman lounging on one of the shelves, and sounding bored and unamused, she says "I know where they are."

Patchouli flies slowly toward the demon, but keeps her distance so she doesn't fly away, then asks "can you help me find them?"

The demons starts to laugh, and right after she stops, she says "who the hell do you think I am? Some kind of dog or something? I'm a demon! I don't work for you unless we make a contract, magic girl."

Patchouli thinks for a moment, then says "work? I never mentioned anything about work. I was merely asking if you could show me where they were, that's all."

The demons flaps her right wing, then says "they're right below me... some are all the way up on the second floor, and there's one more on the third."

Patchouli smiles and immediately begins her search, while the demon thinks what just happened, then finally realizes she's been tricked.

Angry, the little demon rolls on her knees and bangs on the shelf, then says "hey! You tricked me!"

Patchouli flies up from the shelf a little too close to the demon, scaring her and making her fly away in a hurry, then giggles and says "I'm sorry, but I had to test you. You really know your way around here, huh?"

Safely behind another bookshelf, far away from Patchouli, the demon bravely shouts "yeah, I do! What of it?"

Patchouli stares at her with those uncaring eyes and light smile, then asks "would you like to forge a contract with me?"

Before Patchouli even notices, the little devil is right next to her, saying "well, I guess I could. I mean, I got nothing better to do anyway. Besides..."

The demon starts brushing her hands through Patchouli's face, neck and shoulder, and sounding mischievous, she says "I kinda like you, young lady."

Patchouli stares back at the demon with her cold face, showing no emotion, yet hiding her excitement, then says "alright. Give me a moment so I can make the summoning circle. From there we can forge the contract."

The devil nods, and she and Patchouli fly down to the center of the library, where Remilia's old magical circle was, but seems to have been cleaned off by now.

The demon stands in the center of the room, while Patchouli draws the summoning circle and asks "so, do you have a name?"

The demon replies "I used to."

Patchouli smirks white finishing her circle, then says "that's fine then. Let's begin."

Patchouli brushes her lower lip with her thumb, then places her hands on the circle, making it glow brightly and generating a wind that lifts the demon's cloth up, revealing she's actually covering herself up quite well.

Patchouli starts chanting in a strange dialect for a few minutes, and when the wind becomes a strong gust, she smirks and says "and with this blood sacrifice I bind this demon to me."

The woman suddenly gasps, noticing Patchouli cut her thumb with her teeth, and angrily shouts "hey~ You cheater, you can't-!"

Before she can reach Patchouli, the little demon finds herself unable to move while Patchouli smiles at her and says "but to show you I'm really not that bad, I'll give you the name of Koakuma."

Struggling, Koakuma asks "wh-what's... the point... of that... name?"

Patchouli smiles lightly and says "it's cute."

Just like that, the circle vanishes, the summoning and contract binding spell ends, and Koakuma can move again.

She rushes to Patchouli and angrily says "you cheating human, look at what you did! Now I'm stuck with you forever!"

Patchouli continues to smile lightly, closing her eyes and demonstrating her happiness.

Koakuma blushes, gulps, then says "gee, at least you are cute."

Patchouli sighs, then says "then it's not that bad after all."

* * *

The next night, Remilia walks down to the library to see if her new servant has found the book she's so eager to find.

Upon opening the door, she hears Patchouli saying "alright. Once you find me those, try and find that black one again."

She hears a girl replying "geez, alright already. So bossy."

Patchouli replies "it's the only thing I asked you to do."

Curious, Remilia takes flight as she hears Meiling asking "what... did that mean... miss Pat... chouli?"

Patchouli sighs and says "don't worry about it. Just concentrate on your pronunciation."

Remilia can see the little demon leave the area with a bored look on her face, wearing a black dress with a long white sleeved shirt underneath.

Remilia hurries to Patchouli with a stern look on her face, feeling angry at Patchouli for having a demon as a servant without her permission.

When Patchouli takes notice of Remilia, her heart races as her appreciation for her mistress flows out, and with a light smile she says "my lady Remilia, it's an honor to have you here!"

Ignoring Patchouli's praise, Remilia sternly asks "Patchouli, what is the meaning of this?"

Though seemingly uncaring, Patchouli's eyes show the sudden feeling of disappointment and failure in her heart, fearing she might have done something to offend her mistress.

Trying to hold her desire to cry, Patchouli gulps and asks "wha-what seems to be the problem, my lady?"

Remilia looks into Patchouli's eyes and notices her old despair and fear of others has left her, then notices her fear of failure instead.

Something inside Remilia urges her to calm down and listen, so she lowers her tone of voice and asks "Patchouli, why is there a devil serving you in the library?"

An inexplicable cold feeling takes over Patchouli's heart as she thinks "oh no, I crossed the line. She's angry and she's going to kick me out."

She calms down after gulping, then looks around nervously while saying "um... that is, she knew so much about this vast library, and since I needed some help, I thought you wouldn't mind if I had a helper, and so..."

Remilia sighs as she face palms, then looks toward Meiling with a very light smile and says "it's alright, then. Just be more prudent and ask me before hiring more hands next time."

Feeling a weight lift off her shoulders, Patchouli quickly bows and says "I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I-I'll be more thoughtful of my lady next time."

Remilia gently pats her head and says "well, you seem to be talking a little bit more than a few days ago. Tell me, did something happen?"

Patchouli wants to tell her how grateful she is for giving her a home, yet doesn't really remember why she feels this way, so she just smiles as much as she can, which isn't that much, then says "I just wish to show my gratitude to you, miss Remilia."

Remilia smiles, feeling proud that one of her servants show such loyalty, then looks at Meiling and asks "and how about her? Think she'll come through?"

Patchouli straightens up and rushes to Meiling and places an open book in front of her and says "try and read that whole page and I'll be back soon", then rushes to Remilia and whispers "I need to ask you something."

After they hide behind a bookshelf, Remilia asks "what about Meiling?"

Patchouli softly says "well, she seems very tired, and she's complaining about her back. I did my best to heal her with a spell I found, but it's as if she's sleeping on the floor. Does she have a bed?"

Casually, Remilia says "well of course, but she always sleeps coiled on the floor next to it."

Patchouli rubs her chin while thinking, then says "I see. Alright, I guess I have something extra to teach her, but she should come around soon, so don't you worry about her."

Remilia looks away, wanting to say she doesn't really care, but instead, she looks into Patchouli's eyes and notices the admiration from her.

She doesn't want to lose her servants faithfulness, so she decides to nod, keeping her opinion about Meiling and her servants to herself.

* * *

Two years pass, and many things have changed for the inhabitants of the mansion.

Remilia's visits to Flandre have diminished, first visiting every three months, then only twice in one year, and this year, on the 8th month, she still hasn't visited her sister.

Meiling, after a whole year, has finally learned to speak fluently and be more thoughtful.

On the second year, her skills in the garden have also improved, thanks to Patchouli's books on channeling energy through tools, and although Patchouli meant for this to be used for defensive purposes, Meiling refuses to use weapons, and only channels her Qi energy through objects when tending to the mansion's garden.

While in the darkness and gloom of her room, Flandre has lost herself, and constantly fights to find herself once more, breaking her toys, claiming all she wants to do is play, an excuse she's using to make her search more fun for herself.

She has also acquired a most peculiar ability only known by Remilia at the time.

She has learned how to split her body into four parts, and uses this ability mostly to keep herself some company.

Perhaps as a desperate attempt to keep herself from completely falling into the precipice of madness.

Koakuma has taken a liking to her job and has settled down, yet she will sometimes play pranks to Patchouli or Meiling, and always keeps away from Remilia, knowing full well that if she makes the mistress mad, it could cost Patchouli her peace, or it could cost her own life.

For Remilia, her hatred for Gensokyo hasn't risen, thanks to Patchouli's help, but it hasn't left her either.

She still hopes for the day that book can be found, and they can all move somewhere else; somewhere she could really feel at home once more.

Although she knows of the human settlement, she hasn't attacked the village yet, however, some foolish humans, claiming to be explorers, try to enter her mansion, and if they manage to get past Meiling somehow, they disappear without a trace, though the mansion knows full well about their fates.

Finally, three nights before the next full moon, Koakuma lounges around one of the darkest and tightest corners of the library, ignoring Patchouli's calls.

She sighs and says to herself "geez, she's already read through twenty books. Doesn't she ever want to go to sleep? Huh, w-what?"

Meanwhile, Patchouli sits on her desk with her unfriendly eyes, looking around for Koakuma while saying "Koa~, come on, need to finish this volume before I go to sleep."

From the other side of the library, Koakuma bursts to the air, screaming with excitement, and after she stops screaming, she excitedly calls "Patchouli! Miss Patchouli I found it! That book, it's here, it's here!"

Patchouli's eyes open wide as she excitedly asks "you mean, the black book of Ancient Arcane Spells lady Remilia was looking for?"

Just like that, Patchouli starts to cough violently and drops to the ground, holding her chest while wheezing, trying to take a breath of air.

Noticing Patchouli's state, Koakuma drops the book on the desk and rushes to help the magician out.

Finally, after managing to calm her down, and making her drink some water, Koakuma hands Patchouli the book, saying "it was hidden pretty well. I almost couldn't see it."

Patchouli opens the book, and immediately notices its magical properties.

She looks at Koakuma and says "we better find miss Remi, and quick."

As they fly through the mansion corridors, searching for Remilia, Koakuma asks "why is it so important to do this in such a hurry?"

Though flying around, Patchouli reads through the first pages of the book while saying "this book has a powerful spell on it, and will disappear during the daytime. If I am sensing this right, it only appears for one night and disappears at dawn. The magic is chaotic, which means there is no set date for its next appearance."

Koakuma stares at Patchouli for some time, then says "wow, for a human, you are really good with this magical stuff."

Patchouli's gaze suddenly changes to a sad expression as she looks back at Koakuma, then says "you could say I'm not really that much of a human, yet... I'm not that much of a youkai either."

Noticing the sadness in Patchouli's eyes, Koakuma says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Patchouli sets her unfriendly gaze again, signaling the little devil that she is alright, and they simply continue their flight around the mansion.

* * *

After flying all over the mansion for hours, Patchouli and Koakuma regroup at the mansion's foyer, then Patchouli asks "did you find her?"

Koakuma giggles and says "no, but it's for the best. I forgot what I was supposed to tell her."

Patchouli groans in frustration, then excitedly says "it's almost dawn! Where could she be?"

Meiling suddenly bursts through the front doors, frightening Koakuma and making her fly to the ceiling.

Patchouli looks at Meiling and asks "Meiling? You're still on duty?"

Meiling smiles as she rubs her forehead with the back of her dirty left hand, then says "ah, lady Patchouli. I was just taking care of the garden. That flower you asked me to grow is still... umm, what was that word... grow...ing. Yes, still growing!"

Patchouli stares at Meiling with those seemingly unfriendly and uncaring eyes and says "you still have some trouble with that word. We'll need to work on that, but now is not the time. Tell me, do you know where miss Remilia is?"

Meiling chuckles and says "she is on the clock tower. Why, is something wrong?"

Patchouli looks up and says "Koakuma, get the library ready. I'll go get the mistress", and just as she exits, she says "and Meiling, whatever happens, stay in your room!"

Outside the mansion, on the very top of the clock tower, Remilia looks to the night sky as the wind hits her face and makes her hair dance around her, letting it hit her face, feeling soothed by this simple pleasure.

Patchouli's voice reaches her, making her eyes glow red in anger, her peaceful moment ruined by her servant, yet she manages to sound as calm as she says "this better be important, Patchouli."

The magician shows the book, making Remilia gasps with undeniable excitement, even evident in her eyes.

Down at the basement corridor, Patchouli says "and if we don't do this now, we won't be able to find this book again, you understand? We have to do this before the sun rises!"

Remilia grabs hold of Patchouli and starts flying so fast the reach the library in seconds, and the library's center in the fraction of a second.

Koakuma has already prepared the spot in which Remilia will draw the magical circle, and with a smile she says "ready~"

Remilia takes the book from Patchouli's hands and lets herself fall to the floor, being careful not to hurt Patchouli as she sets her on the ground, immediately opening the book and frantically looking through the pages, eager to find that spell again, thinking she can finally go to a new home that's more suitable for her and Flandre, and all of their servants.

She excitedly shouts "I can't find it! I can't find the DAMNED SPELL!"

Patchouli excitedly says "miss Remilia, please, calm down! You're turning the pages too fast!"

Remilia shouts "it's almost sunrise! We have to do this NOW!"

With luck, she stumbles across the page she was looking for and hurries to read the incantation, and just as she places her fingers under the symbols, the sun rises and the book turns into a bright blue light before disappearing right before Remilia's eyes.

Patchouli and Koakuma are afraid of what might happen now.

They think Remilia will take her anger out on them; that she will tear their limbs off and kill them both, but to their surprise, all Remilia says is "it... disappeared."

She looks up at Patchouli with empty red eyes, and softly says "it disappeared", then slowly walks to the library's entrance, letting her arms and wings hang limp, feeling her feet as heavy as though they are filled with lead.

Her heart beats slow, but hard, hurting her every time it beats, as though cold and heavy thorns of ice have set themselves in there.

Patchouli and Koakuma looks at each other, feeling relief they weren't killed, but feeling empty after seeing Remilia's reaction.

Hours later, Patchouli follows Remilia to her room and enters without permission.

Remilia sits on her bed, admiring her curtains and holding on to them as though contemplating their removal.

When she looks at Patchouli with her empty red eyes, the magician decides to close the door behind her, walk to the bed and sit next to her mistress, take the curtains away from her little, yet dangerous hands, hold them tight, then look at Remilia.

The mistress of the Scarlet Mansion suddenly sinks her face in Patchouli's belly, and all over the corridors of the mansion, her wailing echoes through, even reaching Flandre, who lets a tear escape, even though she continues to smile while staring at the broken mirror in front of herself.

Outside the gate, saddened, Meiling lowers her hat as rain starts to fall, mixing the noise of the water droplets fall, and the incessant cries of her mistress.

* * *

Three days later

It's finally the night of the full moon, when Remilia is at her strongest.

At the dinner table, extra lamps have been lit as Remilia, Patchouli and Meiling have their meal.

It's the first time Meiling has been allowed on the mistress' table, and feels very nervous about it, so she tries her best to act as civilized as she can, even taking miniature bites of food every time she scoops something form her place.

Remilia stares at her and says "Meiling, relax. I know you're starving, so eat already."

She turns to her right and asks "are you sure it's alright for you to be eating this stuff, Patchy?"

Patchouli looks quite content after taking a bite of her meat, and after chewing and gulping down, she nods and says "yes miss Re... er, I mean, Remi. This food will no longer affect me in a negative manner. And thank you for having me at your table."

Remilia smiles and proudly says "well, having dinner alone is so boring anyway. I thought it was time for a change."

Meiling is finally taking larger bites of food, yet remains a bit nervous, while Remilia looks at her through the corner of her eyes, feeling as though she is looking, not at a servant, but as a member of her own family, yet she reminds herself that they are all just servants, even though she admits to herself that they are special.

Patchouli suddenly remembers something, and after gulping down the bit of tea in her mouth, she asks "Remi, are you really sure you don't want to read more about the Hakurei?"

Remilia flaps her hand in the air and says "forget it. They are just humans. And besides, we haven't done anything wrong."

Patchouli sighs, then says "well, alright, but I strongly suggest you at least have another look at the records. They are your family's own records after all."

Remilia scoffs and says "that's boring. I rather do something more interesting with my time."

The girls continue their dinner in peace, unaware that they are being watched from a distance.

A figure sits on a tree branch with a clear view of the dining room window.

The person scoffs and watches as the three girls get off their chairs and head their separate ways after some light chatter.

A sinister sigh reveals the figure to be a woman, who jumps off the branch and rushes toward the gate.

She is too late, as Meiling exits the mansion and promptly returns to her post.

The woman growls with frustration, but continues to move forward.

The mysterious woman reveals herself to Meiling, covering herself with a brown makeshift cloak, and only a red scarf can be seen escaping from under this person's hood.

With blue eyes hidden under the makeshift cloak, she looks straight at Meiling and says "get out of the way before I have to hurt you."

Meiling's normal peaceful face turns furious at the sight of the intruder, and after she stances ready for a fight, she angrily says "I can't let you through these gates! Please leave now or I will have to kill you!"

The woman reveals a pair of large knives under the cloak's long sleeves, then rushes straight at Meiling, who only has the time to cover her face before the cut.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

JUL 28 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**What can I say? I believe that once Patchouli settles into the Scarlet Devil Mansion, everything starts to lighten up a little, though not enough. Not yet at least. And Koa; what did you think of my idea on how she was recruited? Anyway, this chapter was a little easier for me to write. I'm getting more used to writing like this, and I think it's good. It has allowed me to see how far I can go to convey emotions through writing. Also, take notice that by my understanding, when Remilia recruits Patchouli, Reimu is going through the "Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream" story, which is the reason she won't go after Remilia or Patchouli after that incident in the village. Also, by the end of this chapter, Reimu is already done with the events of Mystic Square. I'm sure some of you know where this is going. Anyway, I want to thank you for reviewing and letting me know how I'm doing. It helps me know if, and where I may need improvement, and it also makes me very happy to know my work is being enjoyed. Please keep leaving reviews/comment. See you next chapter, if the spirits will allow, and take care.**

**On another note, a very nice guess from you (you know who you are), knowing where I was going with Meiling and Patchouli there.  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**

**This story contains bloody scenes/moments, so if you aren't fond of these, please go back. Also, though I am trying my best to follow ZUN's actual SDM back story, note that he is vague with details, and I've filled those vague gaps with what I believe happened. The point is, you may disregard this if you like. Please leave a review/comment, and thank you for reading.

* * *

**

She has the power to see and change the fate of anyone, even her own, having done so already by never allowing herself to grow up; and in doing so, she has gained two special servants, though she still lost her sister.

With the help of Patchouli and her assistant, Koakuma, Remilia finally got that book with that particular spell she wanted; the spell that could send them somewhere else, a place she could truly call home, and maybe through that, get her sister back.

Again, she failed to foresee her fated failure, and thus, failed to change it, and again the hard blow of reality breaks the strong spirit that is Remilia Scarlet.

But it's not a complete loss, as her newest servant, Patchouli Knowledge, has proven to be a most valuable servant, ally and friend, comforting her mistress in a time of dire need for her.

Even though she failed to foresee and change her fate, she has gained something she never expected; she is regaining her family, yet Flandre remains.

On the night of the full moon, after they have their dinner together, for the first time, Remilia, Patchouli and Meiling go their separate ways inside the mansion, unaware that they are being watched by a strange figure from the darkness.

As soon as she sees her chance, the figure rushes to infiltrate the mansion, but fate has once again stepped in, and Meiling walks back to her post before the dark figure can even come close to the gates, but this dark figure isn't about to give up, and has revealed herself to Meiling, brazenly challenging the mansion's gate guardian.

Meiling stances ready to fight and says "I can't let you through these gates. Please leave now, or I will have to kill you!"

The figure reveals two knives under her very long sleeves and immediately rushes to Meiling, who only has time to cover her face before the woman tries to cut her.

Even though she has a diagonal cut on each forearm, Meiling moves fast, as though not feeling any pain, and grabs the woman's arms, pulling her close for a headbutt, but the figure is quick, and using Meiling's own strength, she runs on Meiling's body, as though running up a wall, and lifts her head above the gate guard's just before the impact.

Surprised, Meiling pushes the woman to the air and away from herself, and before falling, this figure flips in the air and lands on her feet effortlessly, then rushes forward again.

Meiling sees an opening on the woman's head and quickly unleashes a powerful punch, surrounding it in rainbow flames, but the woman disappears right before her eyes.

Surprised, Meiling lowers her guard and looks around, asking herself "huh? Wait, wasn't there someone here just now?"

Acting on instinct, Meiling crouches just before a silver knife cuts her neck, and manages to spin-kick behind herself to reveal the hooded woman, who jumps away just in time.

Still crouching, Meiling glares at the hooded woman and says "I don't know how you did that, but it's going to take more than cheap tricks to deal with me."

The woman chuckles and says "fine. I'll use one of my more expensive tricks."

The woman seems to disappear for half a second, then reappears a few feet away from Meiling after somehow surrounding the gate guard with a legion of knives.

Meiling gasps and covers her face in fright, then all the knives fly at her, stabbing her deeply.

After the knives stop flying, Meiling starts to shake the knives off her body, causing her own blood to splatter all over the wall, the ground and the surrounding trees, asking "ow, ow, ow, ow! What is this? Where did they all come from?"

She finally pulls the very last dagger off her back and realizes the woman has moved an inch.

Meiling gasps, and right after she blinks, she finds herself surrounded by more knives, so she holds on to the knife she just pulled off herself and starts deflecting as many of the knives headed her way, though some do make it through, and one of them stabs itself hard on her right calf, making her fall to the ground after a shriek.

Whimpering, she tries to reach for the knife on her calf, but when she tries to move her leg, she yelps in pain and stops.

The woman glares down at her fallen opponent, then says "good night", stabbing a knife on her left temple and defeating the gate guard.

She pulls off the knife from the guardian's temple, then the one on her calf, then says "these aren't cheap. Besides, it's not nice to leave these sharp objects just lying around. What the-!"

Meiling is still alive and conscious, and has grabbed on tight to the woman's leg under her long makeshift cloak.

Surprised, the woman shouts "let go, you stubborn monster!", and kicks Meiling on her forehead, knocking off her hat and knocking the gate guard unconscious at last.

The woman takes a few breaths of relief while sitting next to the bleeding gate guard on the ground, then says "gee, you monsters are very resilient creatures. Phew, you sleep tight now. In the morning, you can mourn your master all you want."

With those words, the woman walks toward the mansion, admiring the garden behind the gates, and brazenly enters the front doors.

* * *

Inside the mansion, the woman looks around, and after a long sigh, she throws three daggers to her right, killing three fairy maids that were just about to go and alert the others, then looks around the mansion some more, admiring the collected dust on the corners, and the somewhat clean ornaments hanging on the walls.

While looking around, she thinks "filthy creatures, these monsters. They mock us by trying to live like humans. Curse them all!"

She starts to walk up the stairs to the next floor and thinks "these are the worse, living in luxury like this, even though there are humans that can't even afford some food, let alone some suitable accommodations!"

Fire rains down on the woman, breaking her line of thought as she falls down the steps, rolling while grunting and desperately trying to take off her burning cloak.

Finally, the cloak turns to ashes as it rolls down the last step, then the woman lands on her knees behind those ashes.

From the stairs above, Patchouli says "my, another foolish 'explorer'. Not to be rude, but you aren't welcome here. Please leave now."

Staring at the intruder with her unfriendly eyes, Patchouli readies another fire spell as she says "oh, a woman. And quite a beauty. The mistress will be pleased with this catch."

The woman glares back with her dark blue eyes as she stands up.

She wears a red scarf around her neck, a dirty and tattered white, short-sleeved shirt under a small grey jacket, a pair of brown fingerless gloves, a pair of tattered long grey pants, and a pair of worn brown boots.

Her more distinguished feature is her long, shiny, silvery hair that reaches down to her waist, and her face, though twisted with years of suffering, still holds a certain unexplainable beauty and finesse.

With a challenging smile, the woman looks up at Patchouli and pulls a knife from her pocket, then says "a magician. I know how to deal with your kind."

Patchouli stares back with a very unfriendly face, then her fire spell seems to grow right above her hand.

Instead of throwing the fireball, as the woman expected, Patchouli makes the fireball spread into hundreds of smaller fireballs, causing a curtain of fire that rains down to the intruder, threatening to cook her alive.

The woman screams as the fire engulfs her and falls to the ground almost immediately.

Patchouli smiles and says "well, that was a lot easier than I anticipated."

The magician's eyes expand as she gasps in surprise at the sight of the woman right next to her, holding her dagger right beside her neck, saying "you almost got me there, miss magician."

The woman suddenly jumps away, back to the first floor, where the magical flames start to fizzle out, revealing the little damage done to the mansion itself, then runs toward the dining room just as a massive curtain of round bullets heads her way.

Patchouli sighs with relief while holding her neck, then says "phew! Thanks Koa. Y-you came in just in time."

Koakuma and a small army of ten fairies stand just above Patchouli, on the small, first floor balcony, and after flipping a thumb up to Patchouli, Koakuma turns around and says "let's get that intruder, girls."

The fairy maids all cheer, then follow Patchouli and Koakuma as they fly after the silver haired woman.

* * *

Inside the dining room, the woman finds herself trapped, as the fairy maids, regardless of all her stealth attempts, are fully alert of her presence, and are blocking any other possible way out.

The woman snarls and says "dammit all, I got careless! I have no other choice!"

Working as fast as she can, the woman flips, jumps, bends and crawls to avoid the relentless attacks from the fairy maids, while killing ever last one of them with her knives.

She manages to pick all her knives again, but Patchouli has placed a barrier on all the other exits and says "you know, you are the worst of all our intruders so far. The mistress might get mad, but I have no choice but to take care of you myself."

The silver-haired woman snarls at Patchouli, then backward-summersaults to the table, avoiding a heavy barrage of bullets.

Patchouli looks behind her and sounding surprised she says "Koa, I thought you ran away to the basement!"

Koakuma smiles and says "don't get any ideas now, I just want this intruder out of here! Oh, and I read your diary again. Sorry~"

Patchouli grumbles and says to herself "mukyu. She can get on my nerves sometimes."

The woman finds herself surrounded almost immediately, and high in the air, to her left, Koakuma points at her and says "don't even think about begging! I'll prepare you as a special meal to miss Remilia and miss Patchouli with my own hands!"

Just as Koakuma ends her threat, she realizes there is a knife flying straight at her, and while spraying tears from her eyes she flies away as fast as she can and shouts "I forgot! I left the library unprotected!", then flies through the door behind Patchouli, headed straight toward the safety of the library.

The fairy maids aren't as quick, and all die with a knife or two to the face.

Patchouli finishes an incantation and surrounds herself within a large watery bubble, then stares back at the intruding woman.

The silver haired intruder points at Patchouli with her right hand and says "monsters like you don't deserve to live in such nice places like this."

Patchouli chuckles, then replies "my, you are jealous of us. How cute. Still, you have no right to say such horrible things."

The woman is suddenly standing on the floor and has picked up all her knives again, then points one at Patchouli and says "go to hell."

Patchouli finds herself surrounded by countless daggers all around, surprising her as she prepares another spell.

The magician manages to summon some knives of her own, this time black in color and surrounded by a green glow, then immediately unleashes them to block off the woman's own knives.

Thanks to her bubble, she is protected from the few knives that escape her own, and when she's ready to cast her next spell she realizes the woman is gone.

She looks around frantically, then gasps when the woman speaks to her from behind, saying "you need to work on your defenses."

While Patchouli gasps and asks "how did you do that?", the woman uses her knife to cut a perfect vertical line on the magician's bubble, making it pop just as Patchouli flies away.

With a wicked smirk, the woman says "oh no, you're not", then chases after the purple-haired magician on foot.

Patchouli manages to fly away to the kitchen before turning around and firing mercury orbs at her attacker, opening an escape route to the corridor back to her library.

She is determined to reach Remilia and alert her of the intruder's presence, but when she looks to her left, she sees the woman reaching for her, so she yelps in fright and veers to the right, crashing against an ornamental column.

She tries to get back up, but feels dizzy and heavy.

The woman places her boot on her back and says "you really need to work on that body of yours", then strikes Patchouli on the back of the head with the hilt of her knife, knocking her out cold.

The silver-haired woman walks back to the foyer and says to herself "now to deal with the head of this monster's house."

* * *

While the woman makes her way around the mansion, searching through a few doors, she deals with the fairy maids that attack her so relentlessly.

As she kills another five fairies and continues her way, she thinks "how can these monsters have so many servants? And that's not all. It is as if they are fighting for more than just their master. It is... as if they are fighting for someone they love. How can this be? How can a monster like her have others that love her, while a human like me..."

The woman screams with rage, getting the attention of eight more fairy maids, which she deals with effortlessly, jumping as high as she can, throwing her knives at them, using the walls and running and jumping on them as though they were the floor.

After she kills the last of the fairies, she thinks "those girls, the magician, the gate guard, and even that devil. I envy them! They all have a reason to be alive; a purpose! I hate them! No... If I really hated them, I would have killed them all. Why? Why did I stop? Why did I stay my hand? They are monsters! If I kill them, the humans will accept me, even with this power of mine!"

She runs through another fairy-infested corridor, and as she runs through, she throws her daggers at them with deadly accuracy, even though her mind is elsewhere.

After the makes it thought the corridor, she finds a large door at the end of yet another corridor, and as she walks toward it she thinks "you stupid girl, FOCUS! The master of this place is there, I can feel it. Keep focused! Don't waver now! After you have her head, you can show your face to the world again! You will find your purpose!"

She pulls the doors open and finds Remilia sitting on her chair, smiling as the full moon shines through the large window behind her.

She looks at the silver-haired woman and smiles, then says "welcome, you rowdy rat. You have been stirring quite a lot of trouble."

The woman quickly grabs a knife from her belt on each hand, and glares back at Remilia, saying "shut up, you monster. Your head is mine now!"

Remilia smiles again, then crosses her legs while resting her head on her hand, resting her elbow on the chair's armrest, then says "really, I want to thank you for not killing my servants. It would have been a pain if I had to look for new servants again."

The woman snarls and shouts "just DIE!"

Three knives fly straight toward Remilia's head, surprising the vampire as she notices the woman still holds the very same knife she threw on her hand, while making her fly right out of her comfortable chair.

Remilia flaps her wings to keep herself airborne, then says "how impatient. But I must say, you surprised me there."

Again, three daggers fly straight at Remilia, making her dodge, only to get stabbed on the neck by two more knives.

Remilia casually pulls the knives right out of her neck, which heals almost immediately, then says "so I was right. You manipulated the space around you to create copies of that single knife, letting go at just the right moment while actually stopping time. You know, that skill shouldn't even be on a human's incapable hands."

The woman gasps and stares at the vampire with surprise, then smiles and says "well, for a moment, I thought you were just some brainless monster."

Remilia hums and casually says "who needs useless organs like that. Only you humans need those."

The woman throws more daggers at Remilia, but the vampire foresees her move and manages to dodge and get close to the woman.

She grabs her long silver hair and runs it through her fingers, then says "such lovely hair. Tell me, how much work you put into it?"

With a loud battle cry, the woman swings her knife and cuts the vampire's neck, severing the head from its body, then says "there. That should shut you up."

The woman gasps and jumps away when she realizes Remilia's body is still moving, then Remilia's head on the ground speaks, casually saying "you really need to learn some manners. I wasn't even going to attack you... yet."

The woman watches with horror as the vampire picks her head from the ground and places back on her shoulders, and how the cut heals up very quickly, right before her very eyes.

Remilia notices the woman's curious and terrified gaze, then says "the full moon is so beautiful, isn't it. It gives light without burning my skin, unlike the sun. It also gives me more power. You chose poorly when you decided to attack me tonight, girl."

The woman shouts back "that means nothing! Either I kill you, or you kill me! But I warn you, I do not intend to lose to you!"

Remilia smirks and says "oh really? I can see it, you know. Your eyes, those beautiful blue eyes of yours. You are looking for a purpose in life! You want to be accepted by others, by humans! HAH! They will never accept you! They are... not like us."

The woman starts to cry while clenching her teeth, then shouts "y-you know nothing! You're just trying to take my head!"

Remilia smiles wickedly, baring her fangs as she says "fine. You want to fight, then we'll fight. Come with me to the clock tower. There's enough room there for a fight, and... well, the view is to DIE for!"

The woman throws a total of nine knives as Remilia swoops away and breaks through the window, missing her as she heads to the tall clock tower in the center of her mansion.

The woman's tears dry up as she glares at the vampire and whispers "don't run away from me, you lying coward!"

She jumps out the window and manages to soften her landing on the ground outside by using her space manipulation, then she manages to jump high enough to reach the mansion's roof and give chase to Remilia.

* * *

The silver-haired woman finally reaches the clock tower, surprised that the vampire's words were true; that there is enough space for them to fight, and yet she cannot find the vampire.

After looking up to the sky, she sees Remilia with her back turned, standing on one foot on the very tip of the tower while gazing at the moon.

Remilia turns her face to reveal a bright red glow in her eye and a wide grin, and in a sinister tone of voice, she playfully says "I can see you fate~"

The woman doesn't hesitate and throws an absurd barrage of knives at Remilia, who disappears just as the knives are about to hit her back.

The woman looks frantically around, then suddenly gasps and jumps away, just before Remilia strikes her down with her scarlet fire spear.

Turning around in mid-jump, the woman throws eight more knives at Remilia, and as soon as she lands she rushes toward the vampire.

Remilia uses the back of her wings and shields herself form the knives, deflecting the last two and getting ready to intercept the woman, who jumps straight at her while aiming at her heart with her knife.

Remilia's smile turns to a frown the moment she notices this, then jumps backward while tossing two of her own cursed daggers.

The woman uses her knife to deflect one dagger, then stops time to avoid the second.

While time is stopped, the intruder sees everything in grey, and she can see that cursed dagger is headed straight to her.

She manages to bend her knees and body back, as she lands on the ground and slides underneath the cursed dagger.

Once safe, she sets twelve more knives and releases time, making those knives fly in an arc straight at Remilia.

The vampire used the back of her wings to protect herself, yet she fails to deflect one knife that stabs itself hard on her forehead.

Remilia doesn't even flinch as she pulls the knife off, then uses the blood of the knife to create many small spears, throwing them all straight at the woman, who finds herself dancing in order to dodge the attacks.

Remilia opens her eyes wide and exclaims "how elegant! Elegance like that doesn't come often in humans like you!"

The woman reaches the wall of the clock tower and uses her space manipulation, as well as the momentum of her run, to run up the wall and back-flip away from the last spear, then asks "what is it to you if I'm elegant or not? Besides, I'm trying to kill you!"

Remilia grins widely, baring her teeth, then says "yes, you're right! Let's finish this game, and THEN we talk!"

Right after finishing her sentence, Remilia fires a massive scarlet beam that spreads around into five more beams, and as these beams trap the woman between them, giant blue energy orbs spread out in a cross formation.

The woman yelps when one of those orbs hits her chest, burning her skin and burning most of her under shirt as well, but she won't stop.

She sheathes the dagger on her right hand and quickly bends down to pick a red hilted knife from her boot.

As soon as the beams fizzle out, the woman stops time and uses the red knife, and her space manipulation, to set as many knives as she can.

She releases time and surprises Remilia with the amount of knives flying around without an actual pattern.

Remilia smiles as she jumps and flies around while avoiding the knives, yet she still gets stabbed on her left ankle and right thigh.

After she land, she pulls the knives off, unaware the woman is right next to her, cutting her arm and back deeply, leaving a large gash.

Remilia yelps as she falls to the ground, then rolls away to safety.

She looks at the woman, who is already rushing forth, and while breathing with effort, she says "damn! That was pure silver!"

The woman kicks Remilia's ribs as hard as she can, using her space manipulation to augment her own strength, sending the vampire right through the tower's walls, but not before Remilia sets a trap, and engulfs the woman with her smaller scarlet cross.

As she recovers and sits on the rubble of the wall, Remilia rubs her head and arm, then says to herself "I was being too nice."

She takes a deep breath and jumps to the moonlight, where her wounds quickly heal up, then looks at the woman, who stands up after recovering from Remilia's trap, then shouts "play time ends here, lady!"

Remilia's eyes start to glow bright, and this time the glow won't stop.

The woman struggles as she stands up, knowing well the vampire is furious, then thinks "this brat was actually toying with me before. Dammit all, and I was going at my fullest the whole time! Can I beat her?"

Even with that doubt, the woman grabs one of her blue hilted knives from her belt with her left hand, then grabs the red knife from the floor with her right, then readies herself to attack and says "fine! I'll stop playing with you then!"

Remilia smiles widely as she looks into the woman's blue eyes, taking notice of her doubt, knowing full well she now has the upper hand.

* * *

Wasting no time, Remilia surrounds herself with her own scarlet energy and rushes straight at the woman with all she's got.

The woman gasps, realizing their actual difference in power, and fails to react in time.

She soon finds herself in Remilia's claws, who grabs her by her ruined jacket, and now she's being lifted in the air, while that scarlet energy burns her down to her bones.

After the woman screams out of pain, Remilia sighs with satisfaction and drops the woman from way up high, but the silver haired woman is not about to let herself die, so she grabs on to Remilia's left leg, dropping her red hilted knife, then cuts Remilia's abdomen with her other knife before letting go and gabbing on to the tower's wall, sliding down safely by using the wall itself for support.

With her dress broken and stained in blood, Remilia flies down with an angry snarl and prepares her next attack without pausing, even to heal that large diagonal gash on her ribs and abdomen.

The woman takes a few breaths to recover, then notices the left leg of her pant has been burned away, while the other leg is in tatters, still burning with scarlet flames.

A bright red flash gets the woman's attention, then she notices Remilia has surrounded herself by thick scarlet magic, and is ready to unleash her powerful attack.

Remilia reveals her eyes through the thick scarlet magic mist, and as soon as she sees the woman, she releases the spell, making it look like a scarlet mist that leaves lingering bits behind.

The woman sighs and says "oh dammit!", then starts running away toward the inside of the mansion, only to find the door to safety is locked.

Remilia laughs and asks "what's the matter? I thought you were going to kill me."

The woman breathes rapidly while looking around herself, drops to the ground to avoid the thick scarlet flame, then concentrates for a moment.

The clock tower's floor expands considerably, allowing the woman to roll away, just as Remilia shoots another concentrated blast of scarlet magic.

Remilia gasps with admiration, then says "that is amazing! For a mere human to hold such control over her power like that!"

Without Remilia's notice, the woman has set many knives behind her own scarlet magic, and as soon as she takes notice, the knives fly at her and stab her from her abdomen to her face, losing her left eye.

Remilia falls to the ground and rolls around while pulling off the knives, and after pulling the one from her eye, she starts to breathe heavily while struggling to stand up.

When she looks at the last knife, then realizes it's red hilt, and that it's made out of pure silver.

The woman wants to take the chance to stab the vampire's heart, but when she gets closer, Remilia furiously flails her claws around, screaming out in pain and rage.

The woman thinks she's won the battle, and gets close enough to strike the vampire as soon as she stops flailing her arms around, but Remilia catches her off guard and jumps straight at her, ready to use her claws.

The woman notices and manages to stop time just before the vampire's claws make contact, however, her energy is low, and time starts flowing again before she can get away, and just as Remilia notices her target is escaping, her claws glow scarlet, then she manages to cut off the woman's hair, leaving it just long enough to barely reach her shoulders.

The woman falls to the floor and rolls away from Remilia, who stops attacking to slowly pick up the chunk of soft, silvery hair from the floor.

As she holds the hair, she calms down and smiles, then looks at the woman with that wicked smile and says "I got your hair, young lady. I got your life in my hands."

The woman stares at the vampire with hatred in her eyes, then says "go to hell!"

Remilia smiles when she notices the held back tears from the woman's eyes, then smiles even wider when she notices her trying to grab hold of what little hair she has left as she stands up again.

While standing there, the gash on Remilia's abdomen heals to perfection, the stab wounds vanish in an instant, and her eye start to grow back quite rapidly.

Remilia takes a step forward, making the woman take one hesitant step backward, then laughs and says "time to finish you off!"

She rushes straight at the woman, ready to finish the battle, but the woman pulls a pack of cards from her right pocket, then vanishes, leaving a 3 of hearts to be cut in half in her stead. Remilia raises her head with a crazed look, then starts to laugh as she looks back and says "you still have energy for that? I am so impressed! That's it, you are just too much! You are now MINE!"

The woman stands behind Remilia, trying to somehow kick-open the door, but when Remilia says those words, she stops and shouts "I'd rather die! I'd rather die before I let you turn me into one of you monsters!"

Remilia shows off the chunk of hair and says "it's too late! I already took your life! Look, it's right here in my hand! This is your FATE!"

The woman loses herself and foolishly rushes to attack Remilia with her bare hands, so Remilia cuts the skin of her own abdomen with her claw through the tear in her dress, then throw the blood on her claw all around herself, turning it into red energy orbs.

The woman stops running, knowing it is over for her, and just like that, hundreds of blood-red orbs of energy fly to her and explode hard on impact.

* * *

While the smoke from the blast clears off the floor in front of the clock tower, Remilia frowns and says "shit, I think I overdid it", but when the smoke starts to clear, she sees the woman's silhouette on her knees, still alive, though barely able to stand.

Remilia smiles and walks toward her, getting a better look of the woman.

Her shirt is almost gone, only bits of her jacket remain, her pants are in tatters, and that's when she notices the golden pocket hand-watch falling off the right pocket.

She smiles and says "hmm, I see. That's the catalyst for your time stopping powers, isn't it? You were wise to hide it from me. Oh, so that's why you attacked on the night of the full moon. Your power also increases... just not enough to defeat me."

The woman softly sighs and smiles, then simply nods.

Remilia continues to admire her and notices how the light of the full moon accents her inhuman beauty, then says "for a human, your beauty admirable, even to me. Tell me, what's your name?"

Remilia continues to walk around the woman, looking at the singed red scarf, now more visible, due to her shortened hair.

The woman sighs and asks "aren't you going to kill me already?"

Remilia stops in front of her and grabs her chin to pull her face up and stare into her eyes.

After staring for some time, Remilia says "no matter. Whatever name you had doesn't concern me anymore."

The woman angrily asks "are you going to continue torturing me like this?"

Remilia smiles and says "tonight, at the end of the night of this beautiful full moon, miss, your fate has changed. You now have a purpose! You will serve me for as long as you live. You will follow my every command without question, care for my mansion to your best of abilities, and use those magnificent powers for me!"

The woman opens her eyes wide as she slowly straightens out, then Remilia looks away toward the setting moon and says "and from this night forth, you will be known as Sakuya Izayoi. The beautiful flower whose beauty shines brightest under the full moon, and whom I defeated on the sixteenth night, just as the full moon sets."

After her declaration, a swift gale courses around Sakuya, and as she looks at Remilia's glowing red eyes with her own shocked and surprised eyes, she whispers "of all possible fates...", then falls to the floor and passes out from exhaustion, but not before thinking "I can't believe this. I never thought, in all my life, that I'd find a purpose to live thanks to a monster. How... ironic."

Remilia stares at her new servant with an expressionless face, then bends down to pick her up, then quickly flies around the mansion and lands in front of the entrance.

Once inside, she finds Meiling helping Patchouli keep on her feet, while Patchouli heals their wounds.

With a very light smile on her face, Remilia says "this is Sakuya... my newest servant."

Patchouli softly asks "are you sure it's ok to have her here? She's pretty dangerous for a simple human."

Remilia smirks and says "that's exactly why she's staying, Patchy. Come, help me take her to her room. We'll pick something popper for her to wear."

Patchouli nods, and Meiling salutes, then they all head up to the next floor, followed promptly by Koakuma, who looks very curious about the silver haired woman.

* * *

Only two days after Sakuya's fate was changed and she became another one of Remilia's servants, and the mansion never looked better.

The floors, walls, ornaments, and even the ceiling all look sparkly clean.

The fairy maids seem more organized as well, and somehow the mansion itself looks brighter, but the biggest change of all is the immense size of the mansion's insides, though outside it look normal.

Sakuya is in her new room, looking at herself through the mirror on her dressing table, sitting while braiding the left side of her hair, having already braided the right side and tied it with a green ribbon.

Her old red scarf now sits inside a drawer of her dressing table, while her old clothes were thrown away.

She ties another green bow to her left braid and smiles at herself, then stands up and twirls in place to make sure her new maid's uniform is straightened.

Hers, unlike the ones Remilia's old human maids wore, is blue and short, her skirt only covering to her knees.

She still wears a white apron on top of it, as well as a bonnet on her head like all the other maids.

She picks her hand-watch from her skirt's pocket, then says to herself "ah, I'm going to be late."

Just like that, she stops time around her, and as she leaves her room in a rush, her skirt lifts just a little, revealing a few set of knives sheathed in a small belt she ties around her right thigh.

Meanwhile, at the main hall, Remilia sits on her chair, tapping her fingers on her armrest as though waiting for something.

Noticing her impatience, Patchouli says "Remi, calm down."

The magician stands to Remilia's right, and now wears a set of blue and lilac ribbons all over.

Two on each side of her hair, another pair on her hat, making it look as though she's wearing her hair in a double-bun, and on the right bun she ties a yellow amulet as well, and two more ribbons on the shoulders of her robe as well as a blue ribbon on her left shoe, and a red one on the right.

Remilia stares back at Patchouli and says "I just want to get this over with, Patchy. Ah, here she comes. Close the curtains."

Patchouli waves her hand, and the thick red curtains behind Remilia's chair completely cover the large window.

She waves her hands two more times, then closes the thick red curtains on two small windows on the left and right side of the room.

Sakuya enters the room just as it gets dark, then Patchouli uses her magical flames and sets them around like magical lamps to light the room.

Sakuya smiles at the sight of her mistress and says "I am sorry I'm late, my lady. I just wanted to make sure to be presentable to you."

Remilia smiles and says "you shouldn't worry about that, my chief maid. You've already improved this mansion so much and just two days, and you have certainly demonstrated your worth to me."

Sakuya bows and says "and as your chief maid, I must always be presentable to my lady, no matter what the circumstances."

Remilia grins, then gets off her chair and slowly walks to Sakuya.

The chief maid kneels in front of her mistress, then bends her body down and lowers her head.

Remilia presents Sakuya with her right hand, then Sakuya immediately kisses it before lowering her head again.

Remilia smiles, then chants "I thus declare this human being, a defiant of both soul and body, as a servant of both honor and high caliber."

Patchouli stares with great interest, as Remilia grabs a ceremonial knife from a small table to her left.

Staring at Sakuya with a wicked smile, Remilia continues chanting "my body and my soul will remember this pact, and thus, shall be sealed by the blood of the chosen master."

Remilia raises the knife and cuts the palm of her right hand, and without hesitation, Sakuya grabs Remilia's hand and sucks the blood of her mistress.

Remilia smiles and whispers "good girl", just before the back of her right hand starts to glow brightly, then the image of a pocket hand-watch burns itself on the back of Remilia's hand.

Sakuya smiles, her lips still stained with Remilia's blood, then Remilia smiles back as she grabs the skin of the back of her right hand and rips it off, turns it around to hide the hand-watch image, then presents it to Patchouli, saying "go ahead, Patchy."

Patchouli silently nods, then raises her own right hand and surrounds it with a green spell, healing Remilia's whole hand in an instant.

Sakuya elegantly cleans the blood off her lips with a handkerchief she had in her apron's pocket, and as soon as she pockets it again, Remilia stares at her and says "remember, for your safety, and for secrecy, what happened in here today stays. Understood? Both of you?"

Patchouli and Sakuya bow their heads, then Sakuya's eyes glow red for a brief second as she says "whatever my lady wishes."

Remilia smiles, then says "good. Now, Sakuya, bring me that tea you make. And bring three cups. I wish to celebrate this moment."

Sakuya asks "are you expecting guests, my lady?"

Remilia stares at Sakuya with that expressionless face of hers, then Sakuya bows with a smile and says "understood, my lady."

After Sakuya leaves the room and heads toward the kitchen, she thinks "she could have killed me just as easily, and yet she gave me a life. No matter what, I don't care about pacts, I don't care about power, I don't even care that I am the only human here, I will devote this new life given to me to miss Remilia."

* * *

The next day, at noon, Sakuya and Remilia walk out of Patchouli's library, as Patchouli shouts to them "I'll leave that on stand-by."

Remilia turns around and says "right, right. Don't let Koakuma or the fairies near it."

Koakuma shouts "hey!", just before Sakuya closes the door.

Sakuya turns around and looks at her mistress to tell her she's going to start cleaning the basement, but something's caught Remilia's attention.

Unknown to Sakuya, Flandre, Remilia's sister, sleeps near there, though with Sakuya expanding the mansion's space, it's not as close anymore. Sakuya asks "my lady, what's the matter?"

Sounding almost depressed, Remilia says "my sister... I haven't seen her once all this year."

Sakuya is about to ask, why not visit her now, but Remilia beats her before she can ask, and says "she wasn't like that. She wasn't a monster. Sure, she's never been able to control that power, but now... I miss my real sister."

Sakuya softly says "my... My lady, don't be afraid. Let's go see her now."

Remilia turns her face slightly toward Sakuya, looking at her maid through the corner of her eye, then says "you caught on so quickly, and we just forged the pact. Impressive. Sakuya, I am afraid. That is not my sister, not anymore. I am very afraid of what's in that room, mimicking the shape of my own sister."

Sakuya keeps quiet, thinking over and over, trying to find comforting words for her mistress, then Remilia continues "that's how we landed in this wretched world. I wanted to move my castle somewhere where me and my sister could be free... and all that happened was me having to seal her away."

With a determined look on her face, Sakuya grabs Remilia's hand and pulls her along with her toward Flandre's room.

Though shouting "Sakuya, what are you doing? No, let me go! That's an order!", Remilia doesn't break free from Sakuya's grasps, knowing what her maid intends to do.

Once they reach the grey door, Sakuya says "my lady, if you keep running away, you'll never see your sister again. Maybe it's impossible to bring her back, but if you don't give it at least another try, you'll never really know if she can come back to you or not!"

Remilia sighs, placing her right hand on her right eye, then says "I suppose I could present her to you. But listen to me, she is mad! So whatever happens, you stay behind me at all times, and run away if I tell you to."

Sakuya bows and says "as you wish, my lady."

Slowly, the grey door opens up, Sakuya admiring how special the metal used to make the door is, also noticing a small magical circle on the door's archway.

Remilia quietly looks around, then she and Sakuya both open their eyes wide and gasp in surprise when the sinister voice of Flandre reaches them, saying "I haven't seen you for so long, onee-sa... chan. I was starting to think you were broken. Oh, and what have we here? A new maid? She looks fun! Can I play with her?"

Flandre's voice seems to come from all the corners of the room, making it almost impossible for even Remilia to pin-point her location.

Angry, Remilia shouts "Flandre, present yourself already to our new chief maid!"

Flandre suddenly appears with a smile to Remilia's right, innocently saying "but I'm right here, onee-sama!"

Remilia and Sakuya jump in place after the surprise, but both recover quickly, then Remilia says "Flan, I want you to meet Sakuya. She's our new chief maid."

Flandre smiles innocently as she gets closer to Sakuya, looks up at the chief maid, then says "miss Sakuya, hi. I am Flandre. Will you play with me?"

Sakuya bows and smiles, then says "I'm sorry, miss, but I am just too busy."

Flandre frowns and whines as she backs away with a sad face, then asks "why won't anyone ever play with me?"

Starting to feel a little uncomfortable, Remilia says "Flan, you have to learn to control your powers first. Then we can all play with you all you..."

Remilia looks behind, then realizes Flandre is closing the door.

Before she fully closes it, she stops and flies away, giggling and saying "whoops, you caught me! Alright, let's play now. We play until you break!"

Speaking over Flandre's insane cackle, Remilia shouts "Sakuya, get out of here now!", and just as she says that, Flandre runs straight at the maid.

Remilia aims to intercept her, but Sakuya stops time and jumps behind Flandre, then locks her arms around Flandre's, then releases the flow of time once more.

Relieved, Remilia sighs and says "phew, she got her."

Still unaware of what's happened, Flandre looks around, wondering why she stopped moving, then looks up at Sakuya's face and asks "how did you do that?"

Sakuya smiles as she looks down at the little blonde vampire, then says "it's a special skill of mine. Now, I am truly sorry, but I must be getting back to work."

Flandre frowns and whines again, allowing Sakuya to place her on the bed, then says "fine. See you later."

As Sakuya and Remilia walk out of the room and close the door, Flandre looks at them with her glowing left eye and insane smile, then says "sis, aren't you forgetting something?"

Remilia fakes a smile and says "I'll see you later, Flan."

* * *

After the door clicks shut, Sakuya bends her body and supports herself placing her hand on her thighs, then takes a deep breath of relief and says "whoa. That sure was something."

She soon notices the saddened eyes Remilia tries to hide with a stern look and stands in attention.

Remilia softly says "you see? My real sister would be sweet and innocent. Maybe a bit of a brute, she not that monster you saw in that room."

Sakuya wants to comfort her mistress, but Remilia beats her again, saying "you saw all her toys, that mirror... that look on her face!"

Remilia starts her walk back to her room, hiding her face from Sakuya, then says "I'll be in my room. Please inform me when dinner is served."

Sakuya stares sadly at her mistress, then bows and says "as you wish... my lady", then looks at Flandre's door for a while before starting with her chores.

That night, after Remilia and Patchouli leave the dinner table, Sakuya approaches Meiling and asks "so, have you met the young mistress in the basement?"

Meiling stares with fright at the maid, then nods and says "she tried to kill me and my lady from the very first night."

Sakuya stares curiously at Meiling, then remembers what Remilia told her about her memories.

She looks into Meiling's eyes and notices some pity for the little vampire, then asks "well, has she ever been outside her room? Maybe with miss Remilia before?"

Meiling shake her head and looks away, trying to avoid the subject from going any further, and Sakuya, after noticing this, says "alright. I'm sorry, I may have asked too much. You may go to your room if you want."

Sakuya begins to pick up the dinner plates from the table, then Meiling suddenly says "I'm sorry I wasn't any help, and it's alright. It's just that talking about that makes me remember that face my lady had."

Sakuya stares into Meiling's sad aquamarine eyes, then nods and says "I see. Thank you very much, Meiling."

After the gate guardian leaves, Sakuya sees a fairy maid taking Flandre's food plate to the basement, so she decides to stop her and have her clean the dinner plates instead, while she attends Flandre by herself.

* * *

Later that night, standing in front of the silver door, Sakuya prepares herself before entering Flandre's room, softly knocking on the door, calling "young mistress, I have your dinner here."

The maid enters the room and closes the door behind her, immediately taking notice of the maddening silence and thick darkness in the room.

Sakuya finds a lamp on the wall to her right and promptly turn it on with a small match she had ready on the tray she carries.

Immediately, in a sinister and angry tone of voice, Flandre demands "turn that thing off! It's too bright!"

Sakuya bows and says "my apologies, young mistress, but if it's too dark, I can't properly give you your dinner."

As if understanding, Flandre lowers her tone of voice as she says "hmm, you got a point."

Sakuya bows and approaches the bed, where she sees Flandre's wing, then stops and winces when the plate's cover suddenly explodes and flies high to the air.

Flandre starts to giggle right after the cover falls on the ground, making a loud clang that seems to continue to ring on in Sakuya's ears, and with an innocent, yet twisted tone of voice, she says "you are the first to enter here to brazenly. Even onee-s... onee-chan. Even onee-chan stays by the door, as if she's scared. Tell me, is she scared of me?"

Sakuya keeps her composure, even though she's filled with fear, then says "your dinner's getting cold, young mistress."

Flandre snarls and turns to face Sakuya, start to fly just above her bed, then growls as she says "rah! I'm going to play with all night, even after you've broken!"

Flandre dives straight at Sakuya, but before she even know what's what, Sakuya has placed the food tray on Flandre's destroyed dresses and stands behind her, stabbing her shoulder with the tip of one of her pure silver knives.

Sakuya quickly places another knife against Flandre's neck, then slowly starts to push the knife on the vampire's shoulder in deeper as she speaks in a sinister tone of voice, saying "you know, you make my mistress so sad. Maybe if I kill you with these silver knives I'll rid my lady from this pain."

Sakuya presses the knife on Flandre's neck a little harder, threatening to cut her, then slowly rises the stabbed knife up the little vampire's shoulder, making her gasp with pain and tremble with actual fear.

Flandre starts to cry, then shouts "you're mean! I hate you!"

Sakuya smiles and softly chuckles, then releases Flandre, who immediately flies away to her destroyed toys and tries to hide between them.

Sakuya notices how her dolls are all torn and her toys burned and broken, then also notices the innocent look on Flandre's crazed face.

She sighs, then says "now I understand why my lady still has hopes for you."

With tears in her eyes as she quietly sobs, trying to look brave in front of that mean maid, Flandre cries out loud "get out! Leave me alone!"

Sakuya smiles and bows, then says "I'll be picking up the plates later. Make sure you eat it all."

With tears of fright, Flandre watches as Sakuya leaves the room and closes the door behind her, and as soon as the maid is gone, Flandre hugs a large, destroyed stuffed bear while letting out some sobs, then she begins to smile again, and even though she continues to cry, she giggles while pulling her face away from the stuffed toy.

The next day, when Flandre wakes up in her bed, she notices the single lamp next to the door is still lit, the dinner tray is gone, and oddly enough, next to her is a stuffed rabbit with black buttons for eyes, one of her old, destroyed dolls, completely restored and stuffed full once more.

Curious, she picks it up and stares at it for a while, turning it around to explore it, then notices the rest of her dolls, even the giant bear is completely restored.

She continues to look around and finds her mirror is also restored to perfection, and that's when she notice a small note on her bed-side drawer.

She gently pick up the note while holding the stuffed rabbit around her right arm, opens it up, then reads "if you break them, I'll fix them for you."

There is no name on the note, yet Flandre knows it's the new maid, and with a smile on her face, she whispers "thank you."

Just a second later, her eyes start glowing bright red, her smile twists, then she starts to giggle, quickly progresses to laugh manically, then she grabs the stuffed rabbit and rips it in half.

Her body splits into three more, then the real Flandre looks at her other selves and says "alright. Let's play until we break them all!"

The other three Flandres cheer and laugh, each picking a toy to play with it for a moment before destroying it, then the real Flandre stops for a moment to look at the large stuffed bear, then says "remind me to thank that Sakuya", then rips the bear open with a childish and twisted smile, while the other three Flandres nod and say "we won't let you forget!"

* * *

To be continued...

Characters and scenarios belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

JUL 30 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**And thus, this is what I think happened when Remilia and Sakuya first met, and what happened after Sakuya joined the SDM crew. Honestly, maybe they didn't even fight at all... maybe they did. Maybe that is something we fans will be discussing forever. Also, yes, I do believe Sakuya had very long hair before, and lost it during her fight with Remilia. As for when she first met Flandre, that is what I think may have happened. ZUN's never said much about that meeting either. Anyway, thank you very much for reading and I am both glad to know you've liked this story so far, and hope you'll continue to leave comments. And yes, I've read those doujins (quite rare) of Remi's and Patchy's... special relations. As for another comment, Patchouli didn't erase the memory. She simply blocked it, and yes, there is a chance they can come back. Particularly if something from her past, say a diary, were to fall on her sights. I've already triggered a brief memory return in one of my Sukima fics (One Random Sukima). Again, thanks for reading, and please leave comments/reviews.**

**Another small note... don't hate Sakuya for making Flan-chan cry. She was just trying to see what Remilia sees. And she promised to fix those toys to, so I say she made up for doing that.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:**

**This story contains bloody scenes, so if you're not fond of these, please hit the back button. Also note that although I am trying to write this as close to ZUN's main story for the SDM cast, he is vague with details and I am filling a lot with what I think might have happened, ESPECIALLY this chapter. There is very little detail, other than "it happened" from ZUN, so most of it is what I think happened during this time. What I'm trying to say is, you may disregard this if you like. It's for entertainment after all. Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment or review.

* * *

**

After having her fate changed, and her life given meaning by the same monsters she so despised, Sakuya Izayoi has now decided to devote her life to her mistress, Remilia Scarlet, a vampire.

Using her time and space manipulation, she has successfully brought back the brightness that once was Remilia's home; keeping order amongst the fairy maids, making sure everything is to her mistress' satisfaction, and although still not perfect, she has managed to make everything, even meals, more presentable for Remilia, and every day seems to get better at it.

The mistress of the mansion cannot deny her happiness.

She has a new family in the form of servants, a family that loves her, regardless of who she is, or her childish behavior, which has been surfacing more and more ever since Sakuya started working for her.

Breaking teacups to get Sakuya's attention, making all her servants perform ridiculous duties, like having Patchouli try to tend the gardens, while having Sakuya try her hand at Magic, and Meiling doing Sakuya's chores, amongst other childish requests.

Though bothersome, they all feel a certain degree of happiness from seeing their mistress' satisfied face, and for seven months, everything is at peace, though one thing still remains unsolved inside the mansion, and that is Flandre.

Though Sakuya has attempted to reason with her behind her mistress' back, Flandre's madness will not yield, though, the little blonde vampire won't attack Sakuya at all.

She has also been getting some visits from Meiling, who above all, seems more curious about Flandre after every visit.

Outside the mansion, one spring night, Remilia, having given up from ever leaving the land of Gensokyo, has declared herself as the Queen of the Night, and although it seems the other vampires are just going along with this, she is sorely wrong, and thanks to her selfish declaration, deadly battles have been taking place amongst her kind, though at the moment, it remains as a small scale incident, with no real repercussions.

Remilia is well aware of what she has caused, but doesn't really care, and she feels that as long as they don't attack her, everything will be fine.

All of that changes in the course of one new moon's night, when one of the vampires from the forest on the other side of the shores of the now healed Misty Lake, tries to invade Remilia's mansion the moment Meiling leaves the gates in order to rest.

The fairy maids on the first floor corridor chase after the pale vampire, who wears a simple pair of black pants, as he runs from door to door, using his inhuman speed to avoid being hit by their tiny bulets even once.

He is intercepted by Remilia and Sakuya, who stand at the end of one of the longest, windowed corridors, and with a confident smile, he snarls and says "well, will you look at that! The brat and her dog! This is perfect."

After the fairy maids leave, Sakuya takes one step forward and with a threatening tone of voice, she says "this is the last chance I will give you to leave this mansion alive."

The vampire laughs heartily, then shouts "the dog speaks! Well, I guess this so-called Queen of the Night isn't so useless after all, if she can teach YOU something!"

Remilia grabs Sakuya's shoulder, then signals her to back away, her eyes glowing bright red along with her maid's, their anger showing through.

The vampire laughs again, then points at Remilia and says "I don't know who the hell gave you the right to call yourself 'Queen of the Night', but that all ends here and now! I'll rip your heart out and eat it in front of everyone, and THEN I'll be the indisputable KING of the Night!"

As he laughs, he doesn't notice Remilia has already ripped his wings off, torn his shoulders and abdomen with her claws, and before he realizes this, she runs her scarlet spear right through his heart.

His body explodes so violently, his blood splatters all over the corridor, completely staining Remilia's dress, from top to bottom, including her hat.

Sakuya snarls and says "these disgusting peasants think they can beat my lady. How pathetic these smelly creatures are."

Remilia scoffs and says "and they run around so freely around these lands, this... Gensokyo."

Sakuya stares out with window with grimace and says "it's a pity we can't move the mansion away from this disgusting world."

Remilia hisses and growls, then says "I don't know why fate keeps us here, Sakuya, but complaining about it won't solve a thing. Anyway, as long as they keep outside-"

Sakuya cuts off her mistress, saying "but this peon already entered my lady's mansion. It disgust me to think how many more could enter. Maybe we should station-"

This time it's Remilia who cuts Sakuya off, angrily saying "no! I won't risk her failure. Don't worry, Sakuya. When it comes down to it, I will show all these fools who the real Queen of the Night is, even if I have to kill every last one of them."

Sakuya bows and says "you'd be doing a great favor to this world, my lady."

Remilia smiles, then walks to her maid, ignoring the fairies that have started cleaning the corridor, then says "come, Sakuya. I need to get cleaned up and changed. These clothes are starting to stink."

Sakuya bows and says "as you wish, my lady", then immediately walks beside her mistress down the corridor.

* * *

The next morning, right after stationing herself in front of the gate, Meiling finds herself fighting off three female vampires, who cover themselves up with dirty and broken clothes they stole from human victims.

Landing a powerful punch on the smallest of the three, Meiling destroys that vampire, sending her straight into the water of the lake and right under the sun, then bends her knees and raises her hands, and signals the other two vampires to get closer with her straightened right-hand fingers.

The tallest of the three, a brunette, hisses at Meiling and says "don't get cocky! She was a weakling! You are to deal with ME next!"

Before the vampire finishes talking, Meiling stomps the ground under her feet and raises a large stone her own size and kicks it straight at the vampire's face, just as she finishes her speech.

Meiling chases after the flying stone, keeping an eye on the elegant-looking, black haired vampire woman to the left, kicks it up to the sky, and long before the brunette vampire has the chance, she jumps and kick it toward the lake, where she sinks down under the large stone, her body sizzling as though she's fallen into acid, screaming only for a brief second.

Meiling turns around to face the third vampire, who sits on a stump next to the gate, as though waiting for her turn.

Meiling walks toward her, scowling as she does, then says "how honorable of you to wait."

The vampire frowns at Meiling, then asks "that brat you have for a master... doesn't she realize what she's done?"

Meiling narrows her eyes, making her frowning face look fierce, yet confused, then the vampire continues "her selfish declaration has caused an uproar, and all the vampires are fighting for the right of being the real King or Queen of the Night. I've lost all my friends thanks to that."

Meiling angrily says "I won't let you inside, so you can get going."

The vampire laughs, then says "silly girl, don't you get it? I killed all my friends for the right to challenge your master."

Meiling continues to glare at the vampire as she angrily asks "what kind of stupid vampire are you? Why are you attacking during the day?"

The vampire giggles and asks "isn't it wise to attack your enemy when he, or she, is at its most vulnerable moment?"

Meiling replies by asking "isn't it also wise to attack when you're at your best?"

The vampire smiles, opens her wings, stands up, then says "there's no reasoning with someone like you, it seems."

Meiling prepares herself again, though this time, instead of standing for attack, she claps her hands together and stands up straight, closing her eyes as though praying.

The vampire smiles and says "that crap doesn't work on me!", then runs straight at Meiling.

The vampire attacks fiercely, but just places her claws on Meiling's neck and stops.

Meiling has her scowling eyes wide open, and with a smirk on her face, she says "sorry, but you're just too slow."

The vampire smiles as some blood runs out of her mouth and down to her chin, then says "heh, all those deaths for nothing."

Meiling has her fist going right through the vampire's chest, surrounded in a thick rainbow energy, and as the vampire slowly turns to ashes from her chest and onward, Meiling smiles and says "I guess you're right about that. Rest in peace now."

After the vampire is no more, and Meiling cleans her bloodied fist with a white towel she had prepared and placed just above where she stands watch.

Sakuya approaches her from the garden and asks "are you alright?"

Meiling finishes cleaning herself up and hangs her dirty towel on the wall behind her, then says "that was nothing. But they sure are getting more daring, attacking us directly like that."

Sakuya sighs, grabs Meiling's towel and replaces it with a clean one, then says "such a disgusting land this is. These creatures roam about so freely, and they even dare come here to soil my lady's mansion with just their mere presence."

Meiling looks at Sakuya with curiosity, then asks "um, Sakuya? Am I disgusting?"

Sakuya looks back at Meiling with curiosity and wonder, then says "well... um, no. But you do stink when you get all sweaty."

A sweat drop falls down the back of Meiling's head as she sheepishly smiles and says "th-that's why I take my daily baths!"

Sakuya chuckles, then asks "but why that sudden question?"

Meiling giggles, placing her left hand behind her head, then says "oh, it's nothing!"

Sakuya stares at Meiling for a moment, then simply sighs with a smile and says "alright. Remember to tend to the gardens in an hour", then leaves to the mansion.

Meiling giggles and says "sure, I won't forget!", then relaxes as she takes her post once more, crossing her hands behind her back as she thinks "but I like these so-called disgusting lands, miss Sakuya. There's much beauty in here."

* * *

Two hours later, while Meiling is taking care of the back of the gardens, and the shade of the trees reaches all the way to the mansion doors, a large shadow runs straight to the mansion without making a single sound.

It's a large and powerful looking male vampire with small white horns on each side of his head, has shiny and smooth-looking black hair tied to a ponytail and wears long brown leather pants held by a thick brown leather belt that crosses his bulk back and chest, holding two large swords on the back, one huge battle axe and a set of knives in the front, but doesn't wear shoes.

He looks around the foyer of the mansion and raises his wings, revealing a large black cat with two tails that bears two exceedingly large fangs, even with its mouth closed.

The vampire grabs his cat with one hand and looks around, then says "here we are, Azzhara. Now to find this fake 'Queen' and teach her a thing or two."

The cat meows in such a manner that seems it's warped and echoed, yet calming and soothing.

The vampire smiles and chuckles quietly, then says "she should be hiding somewhere underground. Let's go find her."

The cat purrs softly, rubbing his cheek against his master's ribs, and like shadows, he and his master move about without making a sound, and moving so fast they both look like blurs.

After finding the stairs to the basement, it only takes them minutes to reach the door to Patchouli's library.

The vampire smiles and says "always two doors. These home masters never learn... wah?"

After opening one door, the vampire and nekomata quickly realize they are in the library, and inside, Patchouli is practicing a powerful spell that summons a small sun.

The vampire grunts and the cat hisses, then they throw the door shut, getting Patchouli's attention.

Worried, Patchouli says "Koa, go check that out!"

Koakuma salutes and bravely says "roger. But you owe me for this one. Honestly, I'm suppose to help you with the books only, geez."

The vampire and his nekomata immediately move in further, blending with the shadows as the fairy maids pass by.

They can hear the little devil asking the fairies "hey, girls? Did you just slam this door shut?"

The fairy maids playfully reply "no, but we did clean the window!"

Koakuma grunts, but the vampire and his pet don't care about this, and take this moment to move along.

Finally, they reach the heavy metallic doors to Flandre's room, and with a smile on his face, the vampire says "she's here, Azzhara! I can sense her presence!"

The cat purrs while showing off his unusually large claws, and sharpens them against the rug, scratching it all the way through to the floor in a second.

The vampire grins widely, and without hesitation, he opens the door and immediately calls "so, the little brat that calls herself the Queen of the Night lives in such a disgusting settlement, doesn't she? Well, don't fret, little lady. Azzhara and I will rid you of this worldly torment and take over as the true Kings of the night."

The silver door slams shut behind the vampire and his pet, then the girl inside starts to giggle softly, then progresses to an insane laugh that seems to echo all over the room, making the nekomata and vampire hold their ears with their hands.

After she stops laughing, Flandre's eyes glow red, revealing her standing next to her mirror, then sinisterly whispers "I'm sorry, but you got the wrong room. No matter, I'm not mad. I'm very glad you came, you see, I need someone to play with. Oh, and you looks so strong. Look at those muscles of yours. Oh, and what a cute pet. I wish I had one. Can I have it?"

The vampire angrily shouts "who the hell are you? Show yourself, little brat!"

Flandre playfully whispers "my, how rude, but no matter. It's making me like you even more."

She giggles and moves around the room, making it seem as though she's in all four corners.

The vampire is furious, unable to locate Flandre's exact position, then he furiously shouts "show yourself, you freak! Where are you?"

Flandre moves so fast that she grabs the vampire's forearms before he can even see her, then places her glowing red eyes and wicked smile right in front of his face, and rips off his left arm.

The nekomata hisses and pounces on Flandre, but the little vampire flaps her hand around so hard, the nekomata is sent flying to the wall, where upon impact, a cracking sound, accompanied by the sound of gushing blood echoes all over the dark room.

The vampire screams with rage, then Flandre lets his right arm go, just to clench her right hand at his right knee, making it explode into bits, making his blood splatter all over her crazed face.

The vampire winces in pain, but keeps from screaming as he looks at Flandre and asks "what... what kind of creature are you?"

Flandre giggles, then sounds sinister and disappointed as she says "aww, what's the matter? Are those muscles for show?"

The vampire tries to move, but another Flandre grabs his wings and rips them off, and with a smile she starts flapping them around, while yet another Flandre places her foot on his forehead.

The first Flandre paces left and right, then says "even Meiling is stronger than you. Maybe your muscles are just for show."

She shrugs while looking away, then turns to face him and smiles wickedly as she says "no matter. Let's just play. Just you and me."

With those words, the other two Flandres, and a third one, all walk straight toward the first Flandre, merging with her in a second, then Flandre's eyes start glowing red as she widens her smile and gets closer to her playmate.

The vampire swings his right arm and manages to cut Flandre's cheeks, leaving three large gashes on the left side of her face, making her yelp and shriek in pain.

Smiling, he pushes himself away from Flandre and says "heh, what a pathetic creature you are. So much power, yet you act like a mere child."

While Flandre continues to hold her face, the vampire manages to stand up on his left leg and pulls a long sword from his back, aiming it at Flandre's chest.

Flandre starts to sob, covering her face with her hands, then raises her head, revealing a maddened smile on her face as she says "you like playing rough, huh?"

Upon looking at her face, the vampire feels a cold chill wrap his very spirit, making him drop his sword while Flandre gets closer.

The fairy maids outside hear how Flandre laughs manically, her insane laughter accompanied by the sound of ripping flesh and gushing blood, so they immediately run away, calling for Patchouli and Sakuya.

Almost an hour later, Sakuya and Remilia stand in front of Flandre's door.

Once inside, the find the floor of her room stained with all the blood from the vampire, some of his bones lying around, as well as his left arm.

Sakuya opens her eyes wide with surprise, and when Flandre notices this, her innocent smile vanishes, she yelps, then hides behind her many broken toys.

Remilia looks round and says "Sakuya, it seems there was an intruder."

Flandre nervously says "I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, miss Sakuya. H-h-he broke very easy, but he looked strong, and I couldn't... Please, don't scold me again!"

Sakuya sighs and says "I'll get right on it, my lady."

Remilia quietly nods, then walks to her sister and says "Flan, it's alright. Nobody's mad. Y... you were just playing, right?"

Flandre reveals her head from underneath all her dolls to look at Remilia, and nods, Allowing Remilia to see her rapidly healing claw cut wounds.

While they speak, the stains on the ground, as well as the vampire's bones, all seem to start disappearing.

Remilia and Flandre know Sakuya is stopping time in order to clean the room, so they take it as something normal.

Suddenly, Remilia notices the bloodstain on the wall next to the toys and asks "he wasn't alone, was he?"

Flandre shakes her head left and right, then says "I wanted his pet, but it broke too. There's blood everywhere, isn't there, onee-chan?"

Remilia notices how Flandre is losing her mind again, so she sternly says "FLAN! I'm going to place some locks on your door, so these intruders don't come bother you again, alright?"

Flandre calms down and nods, then asks "will onee-chan come play with me sometime?"

Remilia sighs and says "there are too many intruders now, Flan. That will have to wait."

Even though she whines, Flandre still smiles, showing her madness to her sister once more.

* * *

At the Human Village, a beautiful and friendly woman with blue highlights on her long silver hair, and wearing a long blue dress, accompanied by some of the younger village boys, looks over the large house in the center of the village.

All the windows and the front door have been barred with wooden boards, and it even looks like someone attempted to enter the house by force, as well as there are signs that someone tried to burn down the house.

Curious, the woman asks "hey, how about this one? It's large enough. What's the story behind this one?"

All the boys seem to shy away, some even turning their heads away from the woman, making her even more curious.

She approaches one of the windows, the one used by the youngsters to peer inside and spy on Patchouli while she read her books or tried her magical experiments.

After looking around for a bit, she nods and says "it's perfect!"

The woman gasps and jumps, turning around in the air, after one of the elders places his hand on her shoulder and asks "may I help you?"

Placing her right hand on her chest, the woman takes a few gasping breaths before finally saying "you... you scared me there!"

The old man blushes while staring at the woman's brown eyes, then clears his throat and asks "ahem, forgive me, but I was wondering what are you doing here, miss."

One of the boys answer for her, saying "she wants to open a school."

Another boy adds "she wants to teach us history."

The old man rubs his beard while looking at the house's roof, then says "ah, I see. Miss, I don't know if you know this, but... this house has a very sad past. One we are most ashamed of."

The woman looks around for a moment, then takes a deep breath, making all the young boys blush as she does.

After she exhales and opens her eyes again, says "ah... y-yes, I remember the story now. That poor woman."

The old man sighs and says "so many lives that could have been spared... but the people are just too easily frightened."

Before the woman answers, five winged bodies fly to the air, scattering all around the village, causing a great commotion, and one falls right next to the boys and the woman.

It's a vampire, whose body burns away under the afternoon sun, reaching up with his arm, groaning while saying "I... almost... king!"

After his body burns to ashes, around the village, frightened villagers can be heard screaming, watching how the vampires slowly turn to ashes, their skins burning long before their own bones, leaving a fowl smelling burn mark on the ground before finally disappearing.

The man looks at the young boys, then says "tomorrow, we'll form a group. We must inform this to the Hakurei maiden."

The woman smiles and says "oh, please, don't worry about it. She already knows what's going on."

The elder rubs his beard while looking at the woman, then asks "h-how would you know, miss?"

The woman mumbles nervously for a moment before finally saying "I heard some men working over at the Bamboo Forest speaking about this and saying amongst themselves how, er, tiring those long stairs were."

The elder stares at the woman curiously, then smiles, his smile somehow evident through his thick beard, then says "I see. Well then, I hope she gets to it."

The woman takes a deep breath of relief, then says "alright. As for this house, I'll start working on it first thing in the morning! I'd like to start my school as soon as possible!"

The old man smiles while staring at the boys, then nods and says "it would certainly help our young minds."

* * *

The next morning, at the Shrine on top of the tall mountain at the eastern end of Gensokyo, called the Hakurei Shrine, the maiden of the shrine sweeps the left side of the courtyard, showing her reluctance to doing so as evidently as possible.

She suddenly stops her sweeping, places her forearm on her forehead to swipe the sweat off, and comments "phew! This is so annoying. I wish I didn't have to do this by myself all the time."

Reimu walks under the porch of her shrine in order to admire what little work she's actually done.

She wears a large red ribbon on her now short black hair that reaches just above her shoulder, a red vest and long red skirt she ties closed with a small string to the left side, a red neckerchief adorning her white undershirt, and a pair of long white sleeves that are actually detached from her shirt, leaving her shoulders bare.

After resting for a few more minutes, she drops her broom and pulls her gohei from the pocket on her skirt, then glares toward the trees and bushes.

A quick gust of wind causes the trees and bushes to rustle, and that's when Reimu sighs and calmly says "I know you're there, so come on out, or I'm going in there for you."

The bushes rustle for a moment, then out pop a little girl with short black wavy hair, wearing leaves and flower petals on her body, sitting on the shoulder of a red skinned bald monster with a small broken horn on his forehead.

His body is full of cuts and bruises, and the brown cloth he wears around his waist is covered in blood.

Reimu stares at the tiny girl on the large youkai's shoulder and asks "did you get into another territorial fight?"

The little girl angrily snarls and says "hey, we came here for help, not to be judged by a lazy person like you."

Reimu mumbles "lazy person", then says "then state your business and leave. You're scaring away the visitors."

The two youkai look around in confusion, then the large youkai hums with confusion, while the little youkai girl asks "what visitors?"

Reimu twitches and tries to think of something to say, but she is saved when a familiar voice says "here I am, ze. Sorry I'm late."

Standing next to Reimu is Marisa, a blonde girl with short wavy blonde hair with the left sideburn tied into a braid by a white ribbon, wearing a large black witch's hat with a white ribbon around it, a black dress with a white apron over it, and a pair of black slip-on shoes.

The little youkai face palms herself, then exclaims "look, we came over here to complain about the vampires! They're causing a mess down by the Misty Lake!"

Reimu's eyes suddenly sharpen after hearing about the lake.

Taking notice, the little girl continues "look what they did to my poor friend. And only because 'we were on the way'."

Reimu concernedly asks "what's going on over there? You are the third one to come and speak of it."

The little girl rubs her chin, thinking for a moment, then says "I don't know. They're just fighting amongst themselves all the time, even during the day sometimes, spewing some crap about being kings and queens!"

Reimu looks at the two youkai, then sighs, relaxing herself, then says "is that all?"

Enraged, the little youkai smacks her fists against her friend's shoulder and shouts "what do you mean 'is that all'! You're the Hakurei maiden! Do something about it already!"

Reimu looks seriously at the two youkai and says "look, if I were to go and seal a vampire for being overly territorial, I'd have to seal them all, and that would be a pain!"

Marisa smiles and adds "and we all know you are pretty lazy too", earning a yin-yang orb on her face.

Frustrated, the little youkai groans and whispers something at her friend, then sighs and asks "fine, fine. Look, can we stay here while my friend and I recover?"

Reimu sweats and asks "so you can try and eat my while I sleep? Forget it."

The little youkai gasps, then smirks and chuckles before saying "sharp. As expected of the maiden of Hakurei. Bah, whatever. Let's go to the forest. At least those stupid vampires won't bother us there."

As the youkai leave the shrine through the thick foliage, Marisa gets up from the ground and asks "oi, Reimu, are you sure it's ok to ignore this?"

Reimu flaps her arm in the air and sounding bored and uninterested, she says "if you're so concerned, go take care of this yourself. Those vampires fight over territory all the time. But..."

Marisa stares at Reimu as the maiden holds her own chin, lost in thought, then smirks and says "you're just being a super-lazy maiden. Admit it!"

Reimu snaps out of her thoughts to stare at Marisa and ask "oh, you want to go at it again?"

Marisa pulls her Hakkero from under her hat, smiling confidently as she holds her broom close to her face with her other hand, then says "I thought you'd never ask, ze!"

* * *

Later, on that very day, just as the sun is about to set, Remilia's mansion becomes a place of heavy commotion.

While Patchouli fights off three vampires that made their way to the dining room, Meiling has her hands full at the gate with five more vampires, though most of them quickly turn against each other, leaving Meiling to deal with just one.

Inside the main hall, Sakuya chases another vampire, a female that wears a light, skimpy outfit that barely covers her up.

Angry, Sakuya says "you're not even properly dressed, and you DARE come and challenge my mistress looking like that, you sickening peasant?"

The vampire flies around the room as fast as she can, avoiding Sakuya's daggers from touching her bare feet by mere inches, and with a smile on her face she stops on top of Remilia's tall chair, touches herself to show her body off, then, in a seductive tone of voice, she says "mmm, I think you're just jealous of my perfection."

She looks around the room and brazenly rips off the curtains covering the little afternoon sunlight, and though her body sizzles, she continues to smile as she says "the way I dress is my own damned business, little human. As you can see, I am strong enough to kill that vampire mistress of yours. Now, after I feast on your blood, I'll go ahead and deal with that so-called Queen of the Night. What the-?"

After quieting down and taking a better look around herself, she realizes she's surrounded by too many knives to count, all made out of pure silver.

Sakuya smiles at the vampire and says "sorry, but dirty rats like you don't even deserve to lay eyes on my lady. Good evening."

With those words, the knives fly straight on to the vampire, who falls on her back, pushing all the knives on her back even deeper, and is in so much pain she can barely breathe.

Feeling satisfied after watching the vampire's blood spill all over the floor next to her mistress' chair, Sakuya turns around with a smile and walks outside, but stops just before touching the door's handle.

Remilia stands next to the fallen vampire, wearing a pink dress and hat, and stares with grimace at the intruding vampire, then says "Sakuya, you don't turn your back on a vampire until you are sure it's turning into ASHES!"

As she finishes her sentence, the places her foot on the knife that is right on top of the vampire's heart and pushes it down, using all her might and hatred as she does, making the vampire screech for a second before completely turning into ashes.

Sakuya turns around and bows to Remilia, then says "forgive me, my lady, but I thought you would have enjoyed the pleasure of finishing her off yourself."

Remilia's eyes glow bright red as she stares at her maid, then calmly says "yeah... you're right. I did enjoy myself there. Now come, Patchouli needs our help."

Sakuya bows once more as Remilia walks closer and extends her hand, grabs her mistress's hand, then they both disappear in an instant.

* * *

In the dining room, Patchouli hides herself inside a thick watery bubble, even thicker than the one she used against Sakuya, and while inside it, she uses water and fire spells against the remaining two vampires.

One is a thin male who wears a rag to cover his body, and whose only actual strength lies on his speed.

The other is a tall, bulky female who wears a black dress fit for a princess, though it's stained with blood all around it.

Patchouli looks at the female and thinks "she's too strong for simple spells, and I'm just too asphyxiated to cast the one I need. As for this one..."

She keeps her unfriendly face on the female vampire, while looking at the more agile vampire zip all over the room and ceiling with the corner of her eyes, then thinks "he's fast, but pretty weak and stupid. He can help me buy some time."

The female vampire flaps her enormous red wings once, and she's already reaching the ceiling, and as she looks down at Patchouli, she shouts "don't get in my way, skinny! This witch is mine!"

The speedy vampire hisses and says "bah, you can have the small fry, while I become the King of the Night."

The vampire woman gets annoyed, but she manages to calm herself down and smile as she says "yeah, sure, you do that. Tire her out for me, so your death can have some meaning."

Patchouli lightly smiles while the thin vampire snarls, and after casting three water pillars in a straight line, she loudly says "well, look at that. She's demeaning you, and in front of such powerful adversary. Then again, she is right, you know. You are pretty weak."

The vampire snarls at Patchouli and says "I'm gonna break that bubble of yours and make you wish you were never born!"

Patchouli stares at the vampire with her unfriendly eyes, looking at the pillars of water she set in a straight line, and the still inactive circles next to them, ready to activate on her command.

The small vampire sees the traps, but feigns ignorance, and just as he's about to step above them, Patchouli activates them, making him jump to the left and away from the already active water pillars.

Confident, the vampire smiles and says "too slow, witch!"

He reaches Patchouli and raises his claws, ready to pop that bubble, then jumps back just as Patchouli activates another water pillar right in front of herself.

Rapidly, Patchouli opens her book to summon a powerful gust of wind that sends him flying straight at the large female vampire.

He screams and curses at Patchouli, then gets smacked on the back by the female and sent straight toward the line of activated water pillars, where he burns to ashes as he screams out in pain.

After he's gone, Patchouli stares at the female, who chuckles and says "idiots like him don't deserve to even be here. And brats like your mistress don't deserve to be called 'Queen of the Night'."

Patchouli continues to stare at the vampire, but before she can think up another plan, the vampire flies next to her pillars with a wicked grin, then says "plot all you want", then places her hand on the water, making her skin sizzle, yet doesn't even flinch, then says "but these weak spells won't do you any good."

Patchouli scowls, trying to look brave as she thinks "she's right. Of all the possible bad timings, today's the worse to be this asphyxiated."

She realizes the vampire is slowly getting closer to her, and with a quick gulp, she opens her book and tries to chant, but the moment she does, she starts coughing so badly her bubble bursts, and all the water pillars on the ground and fireballs in the air die out.

The vampire laughs heartily, then says "what a pathetic creature you really are! I thought of drinking your blood, but I might get you asthma, dear. So I'll just rip you to shreds instead."

Before she can move further toward Patchouli, she gasps and opens her eyes wide, then coughs out some blood, then says "I... didn't even see you."

Remilia hovers right beside the vampire, sticking one of Sakuya's silver knives in her heart, surrounding it with a curse of her own, then asks "and you thought of challenging me when you couldn't even see me enter the room? What a weakling."

As the vampire slowly turns to ashes, she asks "is this... the Curse of Vlad?"

Remilia nods with a smirk, then the woman says "I see. I guess... you really are..."

The vampire turns to ashes before she can finish her sentence, and completely ignoring her, Remilia turns to Patchouli and says "Sakuya, take Patchouli away. It's time I ended this. I'll show them all who the true Queen of the Night really is."

Sakuya appears right next to Patchouli, bows to Remilia, and as she helps Patchouli to her feet, she says "I'll have a bath ready for you, so you may clean off all that fowl smelling blood."

Remilia smiles wickedly, then asks "and how do you know I'll take my bath?"

Sakuya smiles back as wickedly, then says "not even my lady can stand the stench of their disgusting blood."

Sakuya and Remilia stare at each other, their eyes glowing red, then Remilia flies toward the foyer.

* * *

It is now a dark night, and on the outer shores of the Misty Lake, vampires of all sizes fight amongst themselves for the right to fly over to Remilia's mansion and try to defeat her for that coveted title of King or Queen of the Night.

The trees, the ground, even the shore of the lake itself are all covered with the vampire's blood and ashes, and yet more come to fight.

By now, many of the youkai that live in the area have left to complain to the Hakurei maiden about the battles and attacks from the raging vampires.

Meanwhile, Remilia flies straight out of her mansion, flying above Meiling and the gate, where Meiling cleans the bloody mess left by the vampires she killed.

As Remilia continues flying over the lake, ignoring Meiling and her mess, she smirks when she sees the large group of vampires fighting near the shore.

She stops and hovers just above the lake's water and starts to look around, counting a total of 45 vampires in the area, 20 of them fighting amongst themselves, while the other cheer them on.

Remilia smiles as they continue to fight, then one by one, all the fighting vampires stop to look at her.

One of the males exclaims "that's the BRAT that calls herself the Queen of the Night!"

A female adds "really? This fledgling doesn't seem capable of changing her own diapers yet."

Another female hisses and adds "let's stop gawking and just kill her already! Once she's dead, we can decide who's the real Queen of the NIGHT!"

Right after finishing her sentence, the vampire rushes straight at Remilia, and in the blink of the eyes, Remilia rips her in half with her claws, sending her remains to burn in the lake's water, then cuts her own forearm and uses her blood to make the largest scarlet spear she's ever made, dwarfing even herself in size.

The vampires all watch in awe, some even start to scream, while others flee for their lives.

Remilia laughs manically as she raises the spear, then shouts "FEAR THE POWER OF THE TRUE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT!"

She throws her spear with all her might and in a straight line, right between the remaining fighting vampires, then it explodes violently as soon as it touches the ground, eliminating 16 of the vampires in the area.

After everything settles down, Remilia remains hovering just above the water, smiling as she admires what she did.

Four more vampires fly out from the bushes to try and ambush her, but to their dismay, she is ready for them.

She grabs the first one by his wings and rips them off, letting him fall to the lake below, then throws his wings to blind the second attacker, then grabs her by the neck and places her left hand on her chest, then unleashes a scarlet orbs straight into her heart.

The remaining two try to double-team her, but Remilia starts to laugh and surrounds herself in a scarlet mist, trapping the two attackers in a painful fiery mist of scarlet flames, burning them to ashes in just seconds.

After they are both dead, Remilia floats toward the shore and approaches one of the most weakened vampire, who is missing his legs and wings.

Another vampire tries to ambush her, but she simply cuts her open with her left claw, then rips her bloody heart to shreds before it even hits the ground.

Terrified, the wounded vampire whimpers as he gets away from Remilia, dragging himself with his arms, while the others simply watch from behind the bushes.

Remilia blinks once, and in a confident and stern tone of voice, she loudly says "don't you ever forget who the real Queen of the Night is! And if you need more proof, come and get it!"

The wounded vampire on the ground manages to sit against a tree, then says "y-you're not a vampire! You're a devil! A terrible scarlet devil!"

Remilia smiles sinisterly, baring her fangs as she glares with her terrifying and mischievous red eyes at the vampire before her, then says "mmm, I like that. The scarlet devil, Queen of the Night who inhabits the Scarlet Devil Mansion! If someone ever questions me again, it will be the last mistake YOU'LL ever make!"

The fallen vampire whimpers at the sight of Remilia, while the others either look away from her, or lowers their heads in shame, none daring to cross Remilia again.

* * *

Early on the next morning, after everything settles down, and the remaining vampires leave the area, Reimu arrives to the blood-stained shore, gasping in horror at the staggering amount of blood all over the trees, the ground, and even on the lake's water.

Reimu continues to stare horrorstruck as she slowly descends, hovering just a few inches above the ground so as not to step on all that blood, then looks around some more, using the little light of the rising sun to admire the damage.

Severed limbs and wings that slowly turn to ash right before her eyes, and all she can say is "what...? What the hell happened here?"

A large fairy, the size of a human child, descends to Reimu's left and angrily says "see? I told you, you lazy maiden! This was serious, but it seems it settled down at last."

Reimu looks around and seemingly absentminded, she asks "what the hell happened? What's the meaning of all this?"

The fairy yelps and flies away, while Reimu turns around while holding to her gohei defensively when they hear a raspy voice laughing.

With his back against the tree he cowered to, the same wounded vampire Remilia spared still lies with his back against the tree, bleeding away while waiting to recover his legs and wings.

Crazed, the vampire laughs, then says "the devil. The scarlet devil. We though she was weak. She's not a vampire, she's a devil! A devil surrounded by scarlet flames. All hail the devil Queen of the Night!"

Reimu approaches the wounded vampire and asks "what are you talking about? What happened here?"

The vampire remains silent, and when Reimu takes a better look, he's unconscious, so the fairy answers for him, excitedly saying "I told you, the vampires were fighting, and they were causing a lot of trouble for us, and they were killing each other, and..."

Reimu raises her hand to signal the fairy to quiet down, then says "well, this incident has been solved already... however..."

Reimu looks at the fairy with a saddened look, then says "this has gone far enough. All this senseless killing."

The fairy gasps at the sight of the humble maiden, then asks "what do you suppose we should do?"

Reimu replies "you leave that to me", and as she flies away back to the shrine in a hurry, she mumbles "I should have done this right after that last incident in Makai."

* * *

It doesn't take Reimu long to get back to the shrine, flying as fast as she can, followed by the same fairy that was with her at the lake, as well as countless other little fairies that seem to be very curious about what is going on.

Reimu enters the shrine so fast that the sliding doors bounce back after she opens them, while the fairies all stay outside, looking curiously to the inside.

Reimu hurries to a large trunk inside a large room that is next to her bathroom, and form inside, the pulls out scrolls and old papers, and finally, a brand new scroll with golden handles, which she grabs with an urgent look on her face, then opens it up just as she sets it on a small table, then grabs a brush, dunks it in ink, then starts writing some more on it as fast as she can.

On the scroll, it reads "_The Spell Card Rule. This rule makes it so all spells are made into cards. The users of said spells must declare the name of the spell they give themselves in order to activate it and use it. This will prevent any surprise attacks, although only the caster knows how the spell works, regardless. Each and every spell must be in danmaku formation, which means bullet curtain, or barrage of bullets. This will force the user to have to think up of patterns and formations, and this will allow weak youkai and humans alike a chance to win and survive any attack._"

Reimu finishes writing and thinks, then whispers to herself "no, that's not enough... think Reimu. Ah, I got it."

She continues writing "_these rules affect all who live in Gensokyo, regardless of their level of power, even the Hakurei, and though those of the Hakurei clan may remove these rules, it is strongly suggested that they remain, in order to maintain a stable peace in Gensokyo._"

Reimu stops writing and reads all that she's written so far, and with a satisfied and long sigh, she rests the brush and places her hand on the open scroll.

The scroll itself starts to shine so brightly, the fairies that are outside the shrine enter it to awe at the sight.

The barrier around Gensokyo seems to react to this, and knowing what happened, Reimu looks outside the room toward the fairies in the shrine, then says "I see. So the barrier is reacting, as expected."

After Reimu takes her hand off the scroll, the rules written on them fly to the air, then Reimu grabs a stack of at least 50 papers and slams them on top of the floating letters.

With a smile on her face, Reimu looks toward the fairies in the shrine and playfully says "well, little fairies, I got a little game for you."

The fairies stare at Reimu with curiosity, and the biggest amongst them asks "what sort of game?"

Reimu shows them the stack of papers and smiles.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Forest of Magic, Marisa throws a magic potion bottle to the ground to scare away a beast youkai that wants to enter her house.

She smiles at the invading youkai, then says "alright, since you don't want to leave the easy way..."

She pulls her Hakkero from under her hat and points it at the creature, then says "then I'll just totally blast you to oblivion! TAKE THIS!"

Just as she says those words, resonating magical shockwaves fly by the area, affecting even the barrier itself, and her Hakkero coughs out a white cloud of smoke.

The youkai snickers, then progresses to laugh at Marisa, whose face turns bright red as she angrily asks "hey, what gives? Where the hell is my spell?"

The youkai rolls away on the ground, laughing heartily and forgetting about Marisa and her house.

Enraged, her cheeks turning red and steam coming out of her ears, Marisa stomps on the ground and shouts "you better run, you bastard! And stop laughing, or I'll get you with my broom!"

Still aggravated, Marisa grumbles incoherently as she reaches for her broom, and that's when she feels something thin and light touch her hand.

A tiny fairy holding on to a piece of paper manages to land said paper on Marisa's hands, and with a quick giggle, she flutters away.

Marisa reads the piece of paper, and after reading its content she screams out loud "what's the meaning of this? Reimu~"

A few moments later, at the recently renamed Scarlet Devil Mansion, inside the main hall, Remilia sips her tea and eats a perfectly adorned cookie with red jelly on it, then stops moving.

Worried, Sakuya looks to her mistress and asks "is something wrong, my lady?"

Remilia asks "did you feel that just now, Sakuya?"

Sakuya closes her eyes and calmly says "yes. I suddenly felt very tired for a moment."

Remilia takes a sip of her tea, then says "to me it felt like being run over by Flan."

Patchouli enters through the doors and as excitedly as she can, though she still seems calm, she says "Remi, Sakuya, I can't use my magic spells anymore."

Remilia and Sakuya look at each other, but before they can reply, Meiling comes walking into the room with two familiar fairies.

Remilia immediately recognizes them; the blonde and blue haired fairies she tricked into helping her when she first came to Gensokyo.

Some unwanted memories come flooding to her mind, and after snarling, she asks "Meiling, what is the meaning of this?"

Meiling smiles sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, then says "these two brought this with them. I thought you might want to thank them personally, my lady."

Remilia continues to snarl angrily, but then takes a calming breath and looks at the paper Meiling is holding in her hand.

Remilia signals Meiling to get closer, but Patchouli grabs the paper and reads out loud "This is a notice for all, no exceptions. From this day forth, I, the Hakurei maiden, after a terrible incident, have decided to set the spell cards rule, and they are to be set into effect immediately. Some of you may have noticed you can no longer use your stronger spells at will. Do not be frightened, as it is all part of these rules. From now on, all your spells will be set into cards, and in order to use said spells, you must give them a proper name and declare this name out loud. The rules are a fo-"

Patchouli stops reading when Remilia raises her hand, signaling her to stop, and though her face turns red with rage, she sounds calm as she asks "what is this shit? What the hell is the matter with that stupid maiden?"

Sakuya's eyes glow red, and stay red after the glow dims, then says "my lady, please calm down."

Patchouli sighs, rubbing her own forehead, then says "well, it's not so bad... but..."

Remilia's eyes glow bright red as she says "yes, I know. I don't like this. Bring me that paper! I want to read these stupid rules! Meiling!"

Remilia raises her head to look at her frightened gate guard, then says "stay here and listen carefully! Then I want you to dress these two fairies and have them clean the dining room corridor!"

The two little fairies look at each other curiously, while Meiling nervously salutes Remilia and says "as you wish, my lady!"

Remilia signals her servants closer, grabs the paper from Patchouli's hands, then says "let's have a look at this. Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds."

Sakuya, Meiling and Patchouli gather around Remilia, listening with great interest as their mistress reads the Spell Card Rules out loud for them.

* * *

To be continued...

Characters and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

AUG 4 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**This one was a bit troublesome to write, mostly because or real life issues not helping with my musing. Anyway, the other reason it took me so long is because this incident with the vampires... well, ZUN hasn't really said much about it except that "it happened". That's vague, I know, but I guess it's up to us, the fans, to fill those gaps. He does encourage fans to do stuff like this... from what I've heard. Also, the name of that poor nekomata, "Azzhara", is pronounced "Atz-hara", for those of you interested. Thank you very much for all your reviews and comments, thank you for reading, and I am very glad to know I am doing alright, even with this style of writing that really isn't my favorite... but you know what? I'm starting to like it. See you next chapter.**

**On another note, the name Azzhara I came up with by myself, and if for some reason this name has been used before, or if it has some meaning I don't know of, I would very much appreciate it if you could tell me of this. Thank you in advance.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**

**This chapter... doesn't really have that much blood in it, thanks to the Spell Card rules that Reimu implemented. Do keep in mind that although I'm trying to do things as close to ZUN's facts about the SDM back story, remember he is vague with details, so I've filled the gaps with what I thought happened. Also, keep in mind this chapter uses dialogue from the EoSD (Touhou 6) game, as well as original dialogue by myself. In short, you may disregard this, since it's mostly for entertainment. Please leave a review/comment, and thanks for reading.

* * *

**

Four months have passed since the maiden of Hakurei, Reimu, set the rules of danmaku play and Spell Cards.

Many irregularities have happened, concerning the barrier that surrounds Gensokyo.

One being the accidental crossing of a visitor from another time, from far away into the future, called VIVIT, and after having a brief contest of strength against Marisa and Reimu, as well as her learning much about her new friends from Gensokyo, Reimu and Marisa help her return home.

Another irregularity was the disappearance of Yuka Kazami, the flower youkai that has recently settled in the Garden of the Sun.

She reappeared as mysteriously as she disappeared, tough after reappearing, it is learned she now bears a set of thin wings that look like furry flower stems she magically hides.

When questioned, she claims to only remember being in a derelict world full of strange magical rectangles called 'vending machines', as well as other inexplicable items she didn't really understand, all from the far future where VIVIT comes from.

Unknown to the resident of Gensokyo, some residents of the sealed world of Makai have also landed in this strange world, though they have gone even farther into the future than the Gensokyo residents.

All in all, there have been no real signs of any incidents on the hot summer in Gensokyo, so Reimu seems to be taking it easy in her shrine. Easier than usual, some might say.

At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Remilia sits on the small shaded balcony on the mansion's second floor, looking bored while she waits for Sakuya to bring her tea and cake.

Sakuya suddenly appears next to her mistress with a small food cart, saying "sorry I took so long, my lady. Here's today's tea and snack."

Remilia smiles, and sounding like a young child, she excitedly exclaims "yay, finally."

Sakuya just smiles after placing the tea on the table, and continues to grab the piece of cake from the cart to serve it to her mistress.

Right after she turns around and places the cake next to the empty teacup plate, she notices Remilia gazing toward the horizon with a longing face, holding her tea on her right hand.

Worried, Sakuya asks "what's wrong, my lady?"

Remilia sighs, then says "I want to explore this world during the daytime, Sakuya, but the sun..."

Sakuya looks down to the table with saddened blue eyes, then says "I wish I could cover the sun so I could keep my lady safe while she explores this world some more."

Remilia raises her head and opens her eyes wider, then looks at Sakuya and smirks, taking a sip of tea while narrowing her left eye.

Sakuya stares back, clearly worried about her mistress' stare, then asks "did I say something wrong, my lady?"

Remilia smirks and chuckles, then says "maybe you can't, but I can."

With those words, Remilia extends her arms, throwing her teacup toward the wall, though it's saved by Sakuya before it shatters, then a thick and cool scarlet mist starts spreading around from her very body, quickly expanding all around the mansion and spreading to the lake.

The mist spreads so quickly, Meiling gasps and asks "what is this?", before realizing its Remilia's doing.

Once she does, she calms down and says "my lady's been very playful lately. I wonder what has her in such good mood?"

Later that very same day, at the Human Village, the villagers all gasp and shriek at the sight of the scarlet mist cloud that rapidly engulfs them, and immediately, a young man shouts "get the maiden, quick!"

A small group of men have already gathered by the eastern exit, then one of them shouts "wait, I don't think it's necessary! Look!"

The villagers watch as the scarlet mist quickly spreads toward the Hakurei shrine, then watch as a familiar witch, who dresses in black and white, hurries toward the shrine.

Back at the SDM, Remilia stops spewing mist from her body and drops down on her knees, sweating and taking deep breaths.

Concerned, Sakuya drops with her mistress to the ground and excitedly asks "my lady! My lady, are you alright?"

Remilia takes a few more breaths while Sakuya rubs her back, then looks up at her maid and says "this... should cover... this whole... stinking... land."

She forces herself up, ashamed of being seen kneeling on the ground, and although staggering to maintain balance, she manages to keep on her feet, then says "this took a lot out of me. More than I expected. Sakuya, take care of the mansion while I rest."

Sakuya bows her head and says "as you wish, my lady."

Remilia staggers toward to door inside, and before entering, she places her hand on the doorway to keep from falling, then says "for no reason you are to disturb me, Sakuya. You are to wait until I wake up by myself. That is an order."

Sakuya twitches, but bows down, closing her glowing red eyes, then says "I will do as you have asked, my lady."

* * *

The next day, just after the sun sets, Reimu looks around her shrine and up at the cool scarlet mist, then says to herself "it's nice that its cooled down and all, but this mist is blocking out the sun, and without it all the plants are going to die."

From behind her, making the maiden jump high in the air with a yelp, Marisa excitedly shouts "so we're going out to find the culprit of this incident!"

Upon landing, Reimu strikes Marisa on the head with her gohei and says "stop doing that! Anyway, if you're coming, don't get in my way!"

Reimu takes flight with her gohei on one hand and square blue and yellow amulets and talismans on the other, while Marisa rubs her head, frowns and softly growls before sitting on her broom and flies after Reimu, saying "you just focus on flying straight, you bird-eyed maiden!"

Reimu shouts back "I'm not bird-eyed!"

Later, at the SDM, inside Patchouli's library, Sakuya serves a cup of coffee to Patchouli, then sighs and says "I wonder if my lady will wake up tonight? She's going to miss this most beautiful night."

Sakuya's eyes suddenly turn red again when she looks out the window and suddenly notices the full moon is rising in red.

Patchouli smiles and takes a sip of her coffee, then says "don't go waking her up, or she'll get mad."

Sakuya sighs again and says "I know. I have to follow her mandate after all."

Patchouli continues to stare into Sakuya's eyes, unsettling the maid a little, then says "she should be about the mansion by now, Sakuya."

Sakuya smiles and takes a deep breath, then says "yes, I believe you're right. And somehow... I feel strange tonight."

Patchouli smiles and says "then it's going to be a good night for Remi."

Sakuya stares at Patchouli with some confusion, but before she asks, a childish giggle echoes from the second floor balcony in the library.

Sakuya and Patchouli look all around for the source of the giggle, but Patchouli suddenly stops and takes another sip of coffee, smiles, then says "well, you're looking good, Remi."

Sakuya looks up and front, and spots Remilia flying right above them, smiling mischievously as she floats down, then says "the red moon rises! It's going to be a WONDERFUL night!"

Smiling, Sakuya says "my lady, I am pleased to see you are well."

Their short conversation is suddenly brought to a stop when they hear some explosions and some rumbling coming from outside.

Remilia shrugs, then says "I'll be on the roof's balcony. I want to enjoy this night to the fullest. Sakuya, bring me some tea and snacks."

Sakuya asks "what about the intruders, my lady?"

Patchouli finishes her coffee, then says "the gate guard is certainly having trouble. We might have to deal with them ourselves."

Remilia's smile and widened red eyes seems to tell both Sakuya and Patchouli what she wants done, so they both bow their heads, then Sakuya disappears, Patchouli grabs a thick black book with brown borders, then Remilia heads toward the second floor while saying "tell Koakuma to set up an ambush... and use those books."

Patchouli nods and flies to another direction on the first floor, while Remilia simply continues to smile and her eyes continue to glow, as she heads toward the roof's balcony.

* * *

A few moments earlier, Meiling stands on her post in front of the mansion's gate, when she is alerted by the sounds of yelping fairies, explosions, and laughing humans.

At first, she thinks of waiting for them to come, thinking they are no real threat, but then she sees a talisman, followed by various green sparks headed straight for the mansion and leaving a burn mark on the wall after a quick explosion.

Meiling grunts as she clenches her teeth, then shouts "ASSEMBLE!", and while she waits, she says to herself "whoever is foolish enough to attack the mansion like this is most certainly an idiot."

When she finishes her sentence, she notices a large group of fairy maids are now surrounding here and awaiting orders.

Meiling smiles when she sees them, then loudly says "we have intruders coming here, so I want you all ready for when they get here!"

The fairy maids all reveal kunai knives on their little hands when they all salute Meiling, then one of them says "we will not let you down, ma'am!"

Meiling smiles, then says "I'll go ahead and see what we're up against."

As Meiling leaves, the fairy maids salute her, then two of them take the front and start giving orders to the others, and positioning them in specific locations.

Up ahead, Meiling looks around with confusion as everything around her seems as peaceful as it always has been.

She scratches the back of her head and asks herself "wait a minute, what's going on here?"

She yelps as she dodges a talisman, then looks in front of herself and sees the small images of two girls, one in black and white, the other in red and white.

Meiling immediately takes the offensive and rushes to meet her two opponents, and as soon as she reaches them, she kicks the ground and uses the rubble she lifts and pushes it toward the girls with her energy.

The two girls dodge, then the red and white says "look Marisa, we have company."

The black and white, called Marisa, chuckles and says "you can leave this one to me, Reimu."

Reimu angrily replies "hey, you already played with that black blob and the ice fairy back there. When am I going to have a turn?"

While the girls discuss, they dodge everything Meiling throws at them as though it were nothing.

Angry, Meiling pulls a spell card from under her beret and says to herself "this should do it", then shouts out loud "Flower Sign, Gorgeous Sweet Flower!"

Meiling waves her hands in front of herself and then pushes them forward after gathering energy, unleashing danmaku shards in red and yellow that make the shape of a flower in its pattern.

Reimu admires this from afar and says "aw, isn't that cute. A beautiful flower."

Marisa smirks as the bullets get closer to her face, then says "maybe, but mine is prettier. Love Colored Master Spark!"

Meiling notices the massive beam headed her way, so she cancels her own spell in surprise, then dives to the ground to avoid the large beam.

She looks up and hears when Marisa casually says "oh, I missed. Let me try again."

Meiling sweats and desperately thinks "I'm gonna need help!", then springs up to her feet and as she runs away, she says "dammit, next up is my last stand!"

Reimu approaches the area and asks "you're going to stage a whole 'last stand' all by yourself... hey wait!"

Marisa looks at Reimu and says "she's lucky I let her get away."

Reimu sighs then starts to fly, saying "come on. And next time, I'm taking her on."

Marisa follows Reimu, shrugging and casually saying "well, if you say so."

* * *

Behind the mansion's gate, at the gardens, Meiling rushes to meet with the two fairy maid leaders and says "they're coming this way! They are strong, so be ready!"

The two fairies nod, and that's when a talisman strikes the fairy to the right, making her explode with a quick yelp.

Meiling turns around and shouts "hey, that was cheap!"

Behind her, Reimu elbows Marisa's ribs and says "you idiot, look what you made me do. Well, whatever, we'll just continue on our way."

Meiling gets closer and asks "and who are you?"

Marisa causally says "we just met back there."

Meiling rubs her chin to think, then says "oh that's right. I met these two weirdoes back then."

A sweat drop falls from Marisa's and Reimu's heads, then Marisa asks "well, whatever. Are you some kind of guard, getting in our way like this?"

Reimu steps forward as Meiling replies "I'm a normal person who just guards."

Reimu smiles and says "ah, but you attacked us back there."

Meiling quickly replies "I attacked normally. Besides, you attacked me first. Now, who are you?"

Reimu places her hand on her chest and bows, saying "I'm a perfectly normal shrine maiden."

Meiling smiles wide and says "oh, a shrine maiden. There's a rumor that says that shrine maidens are the kind of people you're allowed to eat."

Reimu smiles sheepishly and sweats, then nervously says "don't spread rumors like that."

Marisa sits on her broom and starts to fly, saying "I'll take care of the fairies, you go ahead and have fun, just like I promised."

Reimu replies "you didn't promise a thing, you lying-"

Meiling stomps the ground, making a small quake, then says "guess I have no choice but to get rid of you the hard way."

Reimu smiles, narrowing her glinting eyes, taking notice of Meiling's fighting stance, then says "I see. Three spell cards. If I win, you'll have to guide me to that mansion. If I lose, I'll leave. Deal?"

Meiling nods without taking her eyes off Reimu, then says "deal. Foolish of you, little human, to challenge me to hand-to-hand combat. Don't you know humans are no match for youkai like me?"

Reimu smiles as she circles around while facing Meiling, then says "thanks for your concern, but I'll be just fine."

Meiling smiles for a moment, then suddenly rushes straight to Reimu with a forward punch.

Reimu stops her punch and uses the energy Meiling expelled on it, pulls on it, drops on her back, then kicks Meiling's abdomen as she throws the gate guard away, flipping backward on the ground and landing right back on her feet.

Meiling's smile widens as she lands back on the ground on her feet with her back against the gates, and after rubbing her stomach, she says "good. Very good! I think I'm going to enjoy this!"

* * *

Meiling and Reimu stare at each other while circling around the expansive garden, then Meiling rushes forth, feigning a punch to Reimu's face, only to duck and try a slide kick to knock the maiden out.

Reimu takes notice, flips and stands on her arms, drops on her back, then twists her body in order to spin and sweep her own foot underneath Meiling, knocking her off balance and making her fall on her seat on the ground.

Impressed, Meiling manages to quickly stand up and back away from Reimu, then pulls another spell card from under her beret and loudly says "Rainbow Sign, Wind Chime of Colorful Rainbow!"

Meiling start to spin on one foot while lifting the other and waving it around, creating a swirl of rainbow energy around her, shooting a colorful circular wave of danmaku shards at Reimu, who watches cautiously as Meiling spins closer.

Reimu smiles and easily gets closer to Meiling by walking through the large gaps in her attack, then notices Meiling's stance and starts to spin clockwise on one leg, then throws her other leg in the air to match Meiling's and stops her spell, capturing the spell card.

Meiling gasps and thinks "she stopped my attack", then immediately follows with an attempted punch, but Reimu is ready for her and blocks the punch with her bare hand, then punches Meiling's face with the back of her fist.

Again, Meiling has to back away, though this time she attacks immediately after recovering.

She sends left and right jabs at Reimu, but the maiden dodges the attacks as though she were merely dancing.

Frustrated, Meiling says "stop moving so much already!"

Reimu jumps and uses Meiling's head to vault over the dragon youkai, but before she's away, she kicks Meiling's back hard enough to send her running for a bit before tripping and falling on her face near the flowerbed.

Meiling manages to stand up again, then sees Reimu fanning herself with her hand, saying "phew, I'm actually working up a sweat. Good job, miss gate guard."

Meiling scowls, yet smiles as she says "I never thought a human could stand up against me like that. Too bad I have to stop you at all costs!"

Meiling pulls a spell card from her right pocket and loudly says "Colorful Sign, Colorful Rain!"

Meiling claps her hands together and starts to spin again, this time dropping small multicolored danmaku shards that scatter all over the garden, making Reimu jump, flip, fly low and dive to avoid being hit.

Noticing this, Meiling smiles and lifts to the air, thinking "so, she's keeping herself low to the ground. Well, you are sadly mistaken if you think you're gonna beat THIS spell that easily. Wait, where'd she-?"

Reimu has taken flight just above Meiling after seeing a small opening just above the youkai's head, then dive-kicks hard and captures the spell card, making Meiling scream out in pain and surprise upon impact.

Reimu lands on her feet with a confident smile, while Meiling lands on her back as she slides all the way back to the gate wall, stopping when her head bumps against it.

Frustrated and admittedly impressed, Meiling stands up and rubs her head, then looks at Reimu and points at her with her last spell card, then says "you are most amazing, miss maiden. I'm already using my third spell card, and against a mere human! Well, this ends here and now!"

Reimu scoffs and says "bring it on already."

Meiling starts to focus her energy, standing as though she's praying, even clapping her hands together.

The back of her outfit is torn and dirty, and her hat looks as though it's taken a small beating, her face is full of dirt, as well as some light bruises and some blood tricking down her forehead, yet Meiling presses on.

Reimu watches and waits for the gate guard to attack, then smiles when Meiling shouts "Colorful Sign, Extreme Color Typhoon!"

Before long, Reimu finds herself dodging countless multi-colored shards, while blocking Meiling's rainbow punches and kicks.

After blocking, flipping, jumping and nearly avoiding a powerful kick, Reimu thinks "crap, she got faster, and she's attacking more viciously, and these bullets of her aren't making things easier. I can't find an opening to this. No choice but to defend myself for now."

Meiling continues to try and land her punches and kicks on Reimu, yet finds herself being frustrated by how quickly the maiden reacts to the attacks, dodging and blocking accordingly.

Finally, Meiling places all her power on her punches and kicks, diminishing the amount of danmaku shards that fly all around, giving Reimu an easier time dodging, yet attacks so fast and so fiercely, it's only a matter of just getting to land a single punch in order to win.

Reimu starts smiling again, infuriating Meiling and making her throw her attacks a little more wildly, then suddenly, Reimu drops down and uses her hands to push herself up and kick Meiling's abdomen so hard, the dragon youkai flies all the way toward the gate's wall, where she abruptly stops after crashing on her back against it.

Meiling feels dizzy, still unable to realize what just happened, and while she looks around, she drops to the ground on her knees while taking many deep breaths, thinking "what just happened? Why am I this tired? How many times she kicked me?"

Meiling tries to remember the kick she just received, then realizes Reimu kicked her at least 5 times on her chest and ribs before the last kick to her abdomen.

When she comes back from her thoughts, she sees Reimu standing beside her with a wide smile, saying "well, mind guiding me inside?"

Meiling sobs and lets a small tear escape her left eye as she says "I'm so sorry, my lady~"

* * *

Once inside the mansion, Reimu follows the trail of destroyed ornaments and dead fairies, casually saying to herself "yup, she was here alright", and finally arriving to the basement, standing next to the doors to the library.

The moment she opens them, she finds Marisa looking around with a smirk on her face.

Reimu takes advantage that Marisa still hasn't noticed her and flies over to smack her friend on the head with her gohei, clenching her teeth and saying "thanks for waiting, you annoying witch."

Marisa rubs her head and says "oi~ I took care of the fairies as promised, didn't I?"

Reimu ignores Marisa and looks around the dark library, then says "gee, it's so dark. And is it just me, or is this mansion bigger inside than it is outside?"

Marisa shrugs and says "whatever. Come on, let's have a look."

Reimu smiles and sweats, then says "you just want to look for some books, don't you?"

Meanwhile, father inside the library, Patchouli raises her hand as it glows lightly, then lowers her hand again and says "alright, the defenses are activated. Now, Koakuma, there are intruders inside. Go and have fun with them, if you want."

Koakuma's smirk shines brightly inside the dark library, and as she flies to meet with the intruders, she snickers and says to herself "she's lucky she's so cute, or I'd just go play somewhere else."

Patchouli sighs and rubs her forehead, then says "geez, that girl is impossible. I just hope it's enough to stop them, or I'll be in trouble."

After saying this, Patchouli starts to cough violently, dropping to the ground on her knees while gasping for air.

Meanwhile, Marisa and Reimu are halfway across the great library, where they are bombarded with green danmaku orbs from many magical books, but they both sway through the bullets with ease.

Reimu calmly looks around and asks "Marisa, can you see a way out of here?"

Marisa smiles and says "nope. I can only see those orbs and knives headed our way."

Reimu and Marisa move left, right, up, down, then right again, then Reimu sees Koakuma and exclaims "target practice!"

Koakuma sweats and says to herself "tck, isn't she a cocky little maiden. So annoying."

Koakuma tries her attack a second time, but when she sees the insane barrage of talismans and amulets flying toward her, she shrieks and flies away while rushing tears escape her eyes.

Although she tries to fly away, turning left and right and trying to hide behind bookshelves, the amulets continue to track her down until they finally hit her, the little devil whimpering before they impact.

After hearing the explosion and Koakuma's bloody scream, Reimu and Marisa shrug and say at the same time "small fry", then continue on their way.

The fairies and library's defenses attack more fiercely now, yet the two girls blast anything that gets in their way and continue on their way, though both are having a harder time with these than they expected.

Sounding a bit winded, Marisa asks "say Reimu, don't you think they are getting a little too aggressive?"

Reimu's face turns serious as she dodges a thick shower of danmaku shards and says "that must mean we're close to something important."

Suddenly, the attacks just stop and everything becomes calm and quiet.

Marisa looks around in surprise and says "hey Reimu, they stopped... Reimu?"

When Marisa looks around, she spots Reimu on the ground and looking around the bookshelves, seemingly interested in some books.

Marisa sweats and says to herself "well, looks like she's having fun. Oh well, I guess I could borrow some books now."

Patchouli's voice echoes all around as she says "hey you red and white, don't run amok in my study. These books are worth your shrine's donations for the past five years."

Reimu sweats but doesn't reply, while Marisa ignores Patchouli, who flies right in front of her, then says "so many books! I'll definitely borrow some."

Patchouli calmly says "don't take any books, please."

Marisa smiles, lowers her head, and places her hand on her chest as she says "I'm gonna take 'em."

Patchouli looks through her book and says "let's see. How to passively kill the black thing in front of you."

Marisa sweats and smiles sheepishly while thinking "is that really written in there?"

Patchouli stops reading and says "my eyes are getting bad."

Marisa smiles and says "it's too dark to read in here."

Patchouli immediately replies "perhaps I lack iron."

Marisa smirks and says "I think you mean vitamin A"

Patchouli stares at Marisa with her unfriendly eyes and asks "how about you?"

Marisa flies higher while saying "I got plenty of everything."

Reimu scoffs, and continues reading a book she found, using one of her yin-yang orbs for lighting.

Marisa ignores Reimu and adds "I'm very delicious too."

Patchouli looks through her book and says "hmm, I should help myself, then. Let's see, how to remove unneeded portions of food."

Marisa smirks wickedly, then asks "how many?"

Patchouli stares at her for a moment, then says "four. Once you lose, I'll get to take my share of vitamins."

Marisa smiles and says "fine, but if I win, you'll help me find all the books I want, and no complaining."

Patchouli nods, then says "another good reason for me to win."

* * *

Marisa smirks and points at Patchouli with her finger, then says "this should finish you off quickly", and fires a thin laser beam at Patchouli.

The purple-haired magician sways to the left, smiles very lightly, and asks "you call that a laser? Here, take a look at this."

Patchouli raises her hand, pointing upward at the ceiling, then four orbs of light appear around her, and each of the four orbs fire a large laser beam while circling around Patchouli in an uneven manner, forcing Marisa to take immediate evasive action, having to drop from her broom and hang from it while in mid-air, so she doesn't get hit directly, and even so, she finds herself lifting her body up and clinging her legs on her broom to avoid being hit.

When the lasers stop, Marisa manages to get on her broom while Patchouli says "if that's all you can do, you better quit now... miss magician."

Saying those last two words in a mocking tone makes Marisa burn up with rage, and without thinking about it, she pulls a spell card and shouts "Magic Sign, Stardust Reverie!"

Patchouli yelps with surprise and immediately opens her book, revealing her first spell card, then calls out as loudly as she can "Earth Sign, Rage Trilithon!"

Marisa's stars get broken down by Patchouli's stone fragments with ease, saving the librarian from a painful experience, and causing Marisa to have to fly around as fast as she can to avoid being hit, which going through the small gaps between the rocks.

As Marisa flies around, she passes over Reimu, who is casually reading a book about tea leaves, then shouts "Hey! A little help here!"

Reimu casually flips to the next page and says "uh, if I do that, it wouldn't be a fair fight."

Marisa roars with rage, but ignores Reimu and continues to fly away when a concentration of the rocks almost hit her head.

Patchouli looks around and thinks "I hope the protection is holding up", then notices how her magical stones all turn to dust before reaching her books, or even Reimu, for that matter.

She sighs with relief and thinks "good. Now I can focus on the battle."

Before Patchouli finishes thinking, Marisa is already saying out loud "...and strike my enemies down with all my love! Love Colored Master Spark!"

When Patchouli lays eyes on the massive multi-colored beam headed her way, she yelps and her book magically switches pages, where another spell card appears, and after reading the incantation out loud, she finishes by rapidly and loudly saying "Metal Sign, Metal Fatigue!"

Gold coins appear in a circular formation all around Patchouli, and the metal coins are so well polished, they deflect the massive beam and splits it into thinner beams.

At the same time, scattered gold coins rain down on Marisa, who notices the magical properties of the coins and dodges as best as she can in order to avoid being hit.

Reimu casually looks up, then says "what a waste of gold", then continues reading her book.

Patchouli hyperventilate, feeling as though the air she breathes isn't enough, and fears she might collapse, so she says to herself "calm down Knowledge. You're alright now. Take a calming breath and..."

She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes just in time to see green sparks headed her way.

Cancelling her spell, Patchouli flies up with a quick shriek, then notices Marisa is flying behind her now, smiling while holding both hands in front of herself, cupping her hands while keeping her fingers spread.

Patchouli gulps to place her loudly beating heart back in her chest, then says "ugh, you really are annoying."

Marisa smiles and says "we each have two more to go."

Patchouli scoffs and says "I'll bring you down with my next spell."

* * *

Patchouli looks at Marisa and her odious confident smirk, then thinks "that girl is a real nuisance. And just look at her smiling like that. Even though I outrank her in class, she's still so confident... and I can't seem to connect a single attack either. Ugh, that smile! That's it, I'm trying this one now!"

Marisa waves at Patchouli and shouts "hey, are you giving up? I already saw some books I want to take home with me."

Patchouli, speaking as loudly as she can, says "I told you, you can't take them! Metal and Water Sign, Mercury Poison!"

Patchouli spreads her arms apart while her book rapidly flips through pages and flies in front of her chest, and a stream of water mixes with a stream of liquid metal, both elements mixing with each other as the water runs clockwise and the mercury runs counterclockwise.

Marisa panics and flies between the gaps of the spell, getting grazed and rapidly losing bits of clothes every time.

She looks to Patchouli and says to herself "this is very dangerous! What the hell is she thinking, mixing these two elements like this! Is she trying to kill me?"

Patchouli looks at Marisa as she struggles to keep in the game, then thinks "good, I almost got her. And just in time. My asthma is staring to get to me again. Patchouli, you take calming breaths. Don't let it take you now."

Meanwhile, Reimu is reaching the last pages of her book, and while reading she says to herself "that spell better not touch the water outside, or I'm really going to seal you... Oh look, this leaf can make the tea look red without affecting taste. Oh, and there's a blue one too, heh."

Marisa's skirt and shirt are full of tears and stained with the mercury from Patchouli's spell; Patchouli is now confident she can win, but Marisa has a trick up her sleeve, and takes a dive, hiding beneath the spell.

Patchouli gasps and says to herself "that girl is crazy!", then hears Marisa shouting "Love Sign, Non-Directional Laser!"

Patchouli cancels her spell in order to take immediate evasive action, though not quickly enough, as a thin beam manages to singe a large chunk of her robe's back, and tear an opening through her undergarment on the left of her abdomen.

Patchouli gasps and thinks "that girl just copied my spell, just like that. Still, mine is stronger, and moves faster than this... however, hers is still as dangerous."

Marisa comes flying straight to Patchouli while surrounded by three thin laser beams that slowly spin around her, asking "so what do you think, ze?"

Patchouli tries to keep away while moving slightly to avoid being hit, then says "so you're that skilled as a thief, already stealing my own spell and using it as your own."

A vein pops on Marisa's forehead as she frowns and shouts "hey, I only borrowed you- err, the spell for self defense!"

Patchouli scoffs and says "eat danmaku, you black and white!"

Patchouli raises her hand and points to the air, unleashing her own non-directional laser, this time blue in color, and expelling blue danmaku orbs that fly toward Marisa, who quickly realizes the difference in spell power and finds herself dodging both the large laser beam and showering orbs.

Watching how Marisa struggles, Patchouli thinks "no, I can't keep going. I'll have to finish this now!", then stops her laser and opens her book again, where a spell card appears while the book continues to flip through pages, then shouts "Earth and Metal Sign, Emerald Megalith!"

Marisa watches in horror as small and large green stones shower on her as though they were rain, threatening to finish her off quickly, giving her very little room to dodge through.

Watching Marisa barely grazes through the rocks, Patchouli feels as her own strength wanes, and she feels a strong need to cough, but she manages to suppress it and continues her spell, thinking "just a little more. I almost got her."

Marisa's clothes are full of tears all over, her skirt looks like a messy cloth, and her shirt and apron look like she's been sleeping on a bed of nails, yet she still smirks, irritating Patchouli some more.

Marisa gets closer to Patchouli and the source of the spell, and suddenly pulls a spell card from under her hat, but before she can declare her spell, Patchouli starts coughing very violently, cancelling her own spell and dropping from the second floor straight to the ground floor.

Marisa is caught by surprise by these sudden turn of events and doesn't realize Patchouli is falling to her death, and by the time she realizes it, Reimu jumps from the desk she was and rescues Patchouli long before she hits the ground.

Worried, Marisa flies to Reimu and Patchouli, and asks "whoa, what just happened?"

Patchouli coughs some more, sobs then replies "I... I'm so anemic, I can't even recite my spells."

Reimu smiles, then says "well, looks like you owe Marisa some books. Though, why don't you rest for a bit before that? Oh, and please point me to your mistress, if you're so kind."

Patchouli smiles while taking a few calming breaths while on Reimu's arms, then says "second floor balcony to the right. There's a door there... but before you go, could you tell me who you are?"

Reimu helps Patchouli to sit before letting go and saying "I'm Reimu Hakurei, your beautiful shrine maiden, and I'll be resolving this little mist incident tonight."

As Reimu flies away, Marisa kneels beside Patchouli with that confident smirk, then says "right, once you're all better, you're helping me with those books."

Patchouli sighs as she wipes a tear from under her left eye and says "mukyu~, how annoying you are."

* * *

After following Patchouli's directions, Reimu finds herself flying over the main hallway of the mansion.

The fairies are attacking relentlessly, however Reimu avoids every single bullet as though she's not even being shot, lazily swaying left and right while blasting all the fairies.

Up ahead, Sakuya looks on and watches how each and every fairy maid falls to Reimu's attacks, so she grumbles as she takes flight to meet the intruder first-hand.

Sakuya reaches the maiden, thinking "who the hell does this girl think she is, coming into the mansion and doing as she pleases? I'm going to have to teach her some manners!"

As she thinks this, she sets many knives around her and releases them, smiling while saying "the cleaning is getting nowhere. The mistress is going to be angry at me."

Reimu smirks, but doesn't reply, and simply launches a couple of needles at the maid's knives, clearing a path for her amulets, which she launches quickly.

Sakuya gasps and flies up, trying to avoid the attack, but the amulets seek her and stick on her legs, burning her skin just slightly before falling off.

Sakuya growls and thinks "ugh, what the hell was that? I'll make her pay for that. Oh, that's right. Got to use these stupid spell cards now."

Sakuya pulls a spell card from her apron and shouts "Conjuring, Misdirection!"

Sakuya throws countless kunai knives around herself, then stops time to move elsewhere.

Once repositioned, she prepares a barrage of knives and releases time again.

When Reimu sees this, she looks at Sakuya while dodging the knives, then thinks "I see. Nice trick, miss maid."

Once clear of the knives, Reimu prepares a few amulets and talismans, and the second Sakuya finishes setting up the kunai knives and stops time to set her knives, Reimu disappears from the front and reappears behind Sakuya, and while the maid wonders where her opponent is, Reimu places many of the talismans and amulets around the maid, then flicks her forehead, just as Sakuya turns around, capturing the spell card as soon as the talismans and amulets strike the maid.

Sakuya falls to the floor and roars with rage after seeing the maiden still flying and looking down on her.

She recovers and quickly retreats after stopping time, thinking "what just happened? How come I lost her from my sight like that? Grr, I'll set up and ambush ahead!"

Reimu glares forward, somehow knowing that maid is up ahead, then rusehs to meet her again.

Sakuya can hear the fairy maids fall one by one, even the stronger ones, making her own rage escalate, and making her already red eyes glow brightly.

She stops running when the fairies stop screaming, then looks back and sees the maiden heading straight for her.

Angry, Sakuya thinks "there's no way in hell I'm allowing her to go any farther!"

Sakuya flies up to meet up with Reimu, then says "you're getting in the way of cleaning again."

Reimu stares at Sakuya and says "you... you don't seem to belong here."

Sakuya angrily ask "who are you? Are you a guest of the mistress?"

There is an awkward silence, then Sakuya sternly replies "you're not going any further. Rarely does my lady gets visitors."

Reimu asks "you're the ones spreading the mist around here, right? What do you hope to achieve with this?"

Sakuya frowns and replies "my mistress likes the darkness."

Reimu asks "well I don't, and you're going to kill all the nature around here, so could you stop already?"

Sakuya's eyes glow bright red as she says "you can ask the mistress yourself."

Reimu bluntly replies "then bring her here."

Sakuya pulls a knife from the belt on her thigh, then threateningly says "I'll never allow my lady to face danger. I'll stop you here for as long as I can by stopping time!"

Reimu smiles and says "four spells. You know the drill, I'm sure."

Sakuya moves her hand with the knife and creates three dozens in front of herself, and before the releases them, she says "sure. After I win, your blood will nourish my lady for days."

Reimu smirks and says "you'll be leading me straight to her before that ever happens."

* * *

Sakuya throws her knives at Reimu, who bravely grazes through them, getting a few tears on her sleeves and skirt, and fires a barrage of needles that easily counter Sakuya's knives, allowing her to get closer and try to kick Sakuya down.

The maid sees the attack just in time and sways away from harm at the right moment, and thinking she has the upper hand, she pulls out a spell card and says "Illusion Existence, Clock Corpse!"

Sakuya unleashes small shards in a straight line, then stops time and sets many knives to face her opponent, then releases time.

When she does, she notices Reimu is gone from her sight, and before she can turn around, Reimu kicks her back hard and sends her crashing against her own attack, capturing the spell card and cancelling Sakuya's attack.

Baffled and sounding excited and angry, Sakuya looks up at Reimu and asks "how? How did you do that? You were right there! I know this! I stopped time!"

Reimu smiles and in a calm undertone, she says "I know."

Sakuya gasps and asks "wha-? HOW?"

Reimu smiles and says "when you attacked me back there, I noticed how you moved from one spot to another so quickly. Honestly, if I didn't know about teleporting myself, I would have thought you WERE teleporting round... but there is a difference."

Sakuya flies back up, brushing the knives off her skirt and keeping her eyes on Reimu.

The maiden smiles and continues "you see, when you teleport, you can attack much faster, without tiring yourself so much or spending so much energy. I noticed how agitated you were after setting up all those knives. Also, when you teleport, you leave a faint trace of energy that can be sensed, at the very least."

Sakuya clenches her teeth, angry at Reimu, throwing various knives that seem to multiply around herself.

While Reimu dodges, she continues "I wasn't very sure about this, until you attacked me the second time and I captured your spell card."

Sakuya gasps and stops her attack, staring at Reimu with fear and surprise.

Reimu continues "you can stop time all you want, it won't do a thing for you against me."

Sakuya starts to tremble as her anger escalates, then pulls out a spell card and angrily shouts "Illusion World, The World!"

Sakuya stops time and blindly sets all her knives facing Reimu, who flies in the center of the room with that casual and uncaring face of hers.

Sakuya's rage reaches such point that she even manages to set fireballs in scarlet colors around her knives, and many randomly set knives all over hoping to put a stop to the maiden like that.

To the maid's dismay, the second she releases time, Reimu is gone from that spot and is striking her on the back of the head with her gohei, capturing yet another spell card, cancelling the spell, and sending Sakuya spinning in the air.

When she stops spinning, Sakuya roars as she clenches her hands, then shouts "how are you doing that?"

Reimu calmly sighs and says "I already told you."

Sakuya starts throwing dozens and dozens of knives that bounce off walls and the ceiling, forcing Reimu to move and dodge for dear life, flying low, swaying and twirling to miss being stabbed in the abdomen or eyes, getting grazed on her abdomen by a stray knife, having her red vest cut open.

Sakuya smiles and says "I got you now!"

Reimu throws a barrage of needles between Sakuya's daggers, and forces Sakuya to cover her face with her own arms, getting many large needles with tiny charms attached on the balled end stuck on her forearms.

Sakuya screams in pain and pulls the needles off, ignoring the pain due to her anger, then shouts "I'll make you pay dearly!"

Reimu calmly scoffs, then says "you won't even hit me."

* * *

In her anger, Sakuya pulls her next spell card and loudly says "Maid Secret Skill, Marionette!"

Sakuya stops time once more, then sets various knives close to Reimu, all pointing at her, then sets a few more on random positions, hoping to catch Reimu off guard.

When she releases time, Reimu disappears again, but this time Sakuya is ready and flies away from the shrine maiden's attack, stopping time once more and setting more straight and random knives.

Again, Reimu disappears and reappears behind Sakuya, then says "stop that, you're going to make me dizzy."

Sakuya growls and says "then maybe I'm doing something right!"

Sakuya stops time once more and sets her knives again, then admires the many knives that are flying all over the hallway and smirks, thinking "there are knives bouncing off the walls and ceiling, some are scattered all over. I'll overwhelm her! She'll never reach the mistress while I'm around!"

As soon as she flies away and releases time, Reimu disappears again, though this time she doesn't reappear, making Sakuya look all around, thinking "wait, did she give up? No... I can sense her... she's..."

Sakuya gasps and looks up, just as Reimu pulls a spell card from under her sleeve and shouts "Spirit Sign, Fantasy Orb!"

Five orbs in the colors red, blue, green, yellow and white fly all around Sakuya in a circle, making the maid so nervous she forgets to stop time, but the moment she remembers to do so, all five orbs close in and strike her hard, making her scream out in pain and cancelling her spell card.

Sakuya falls to the floor, then slowly gets up on her knees and struggles to keep herself kneeling, using her arms for support.

Reimu lands next to her and casually asks "so, are we done here?"

Sakuya can't answer; all she can do is grunt as she uses all her strength to keep herself up, while thinking "I... can't move. I didn't even get to use my fourth spell card."

Reimu pats Sakuya on the left shoulder and says "don't feel bad. You fought well, but in the end, my strategy beat yours. Now, if you'll kindly point me to your mistress."

Sakuya grumbles the word "roof" lightly, to which Reimu smiles and says "thank you. Now, to stop this mist once and for all."

As Reimu flies toward what her instincts tell her are the stairs to the roof, Sakuya manages to weakly say "she's too strong... but maybe the mistress can stop her."

Outside, in the garden, Meiling sits with her back against the gate's wall while having her wounds treated by the fairy maids, and while she looks between her feet with her eyes covered by a dark shadow, her heart beats slowly while she thinks "I am such a failure. I am so very sorry, miss Remilia. I failed you. I am... useless to you."

At the library, Marisa happily chatters away while picking up stacks of books, while Patchouli sadly stares at the desk in front of herself, trying, but failing to hold back her tears, thinking "after all of this, I failed you Remi. I am worthless to you after all. I am so sorry."

In the hallway, Sakuya continues to struggle as she attempts to stand up, her heart feeling as though rocks have settled inside it, making each beating as painful as the last, making it even harder for her to move, let alone breathe.

As she manages to crawl, she thinks "my lady, after all you've given me, I have let you down. I can't... I can't let this happen! I must stand up! Sakuya, you have to stand UP! Please, stand up!"

Sakuya starts to sob as the hallway becomes darker with each passing minute, making her feel as though her failure has cost her the life Remilia had given her, all because of one overwhelmingly powerful human.

* * *

To be Continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

AUG 9 2010

Written By

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**I am sure that many of you noticed I used the dialogue from the "Embodiment of Scarlet Devil" game itself, so do keep in mind that credit goes to both ZUN and the translators of the game as well... but mostly ZUN. Yes, I do believe the SDM girls felt like failures after being defeated, but this isn't the end! Well... of course it isn't, we all know that. Anyway, if you are wondering why I omitted Rumia and Cirno... well, this is a story for the SDM cast, and I wanted to show their point of views of the events that took place, even if just briefly. Not much left to say, except thank you for reading, and please leave a comment/review, and of course, thanks for your comments/reviews. See you next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:**

**Note that this chapter has some light bloody scenes (yes, even with the spell card rules in effect), so hit that back button if you don't like them. Also note that I am trying to write things as close as possible to ZUN's story about the SDM cast, but keep in mind that he is vague, so I will fill those vague gaps with my own ideas of what might have happened. In short, you may disregard this. Also note that I've used dialogue from the game again, so remember that ZUN and the translators of the game's dialogue are to be given credit to in here. Please leave a comment/review, as it will be much appreciated.

* * *

**

Unaware of her servant's failure to stop Reimu's advance, Remilia stands on the roof of the clock tower, holding herself by the ornamental metal pike on its top, closing her eyes and smiling as she enjoys the cool wind and the large red full moon.

She opens her red eyes and says to herself "really, nights like this is the only reason to live."

The wind stops blowing and Remilia's smile vanishes for a moment as she looks back through the corner of her eyes, then says to herself "well, it seems Sakuya failed. Tch, of all nights to be getting lazy, really!"

Her eyes start to glow bright red when she looks down, then smiles wickedly and says to herself "that's it, miss intruder, come. Come and meet with your fate that is Remilia Scarlet, the Scarlet Devil, Queen of the Night!"

While all of this happens, down at the basement, close to the doors to Patchouli's Library, behind the locked metal doors, is Flandre Scarlet, who sits on her bed, curling into a ball and holding her knees, listening to the racket occurring outside.

She can clearly hear how Sakuya loses her temper so quickly when fighting against the one called Reimu Hakurei, and can hear the low and disappointed tone of voice of the sickly Patchouli as she asks Marisa Kirisame to stop knocking books off their shelves.

Flandre's eyes glow bright as she starts to smile in a most disturbing manner, then says "new humans. I want to see them. I want to play with them... until they break."

She softly giggles to herself, taking notice of how maddened she sounds, making her cry, though she continues to giggle and smile, as she is unable to find herself in the darkness, even though she's looking so hard.

Her maddened giggle echoes all around her room, making her door vibrate and causing the locks outside to loosen up.

* * *

At the grand hallway, Sakuya struggles to stand up, sobbing as she thinks what Remilia would say to her for her failure.

In her mind, Sakuya sees herself kneeling in the front gates, begging to Remilia, who stands inside, coldly saying "I have no need for useless failures like you. Go, and do whatever you want with the rest of your pathetic life."

Slowly, the door closes in front of Sakuya's face, and with it, all the light disappears, and Sakuya finds herself wandering through darkness, looking for a purpose in life once more.

This vision frightens Sakuya so much, she gets up on her feet, ignoring her own exhaustion, and with a loud war cry she lifts to the air and stops time in order to reach the shrine maiden, before she reaches her mistress.

Up ahead, Reimu is inside the clock tower, and is flying up to the door that will lead her to the roof's balcony, disregarding the long stairs to the top, and as she flies up, she comes across many magical defenses, as well as stronger fairies.

The last two she meets as the very same blue and blonde haired fairies that Remilia had as her first fairy maids.

The two of them giggle, then the blue haired one says "stop the intruder!", while the blonde fairy says "orders from lady Remilia! I win if I shoot more!"

Both fairies fire small shards all around themselves, giving Reimu a rough time finding a gap between the relentless attacks from those two and the other six fairies that suddenly pop from the windows.

Before long, Reimu manages to graze through the bullets, getting a few tears on her skirt, then fires her amulets straight at the two fairies in front, who shriek just before exploding.

After falling all the way to the ground floor, the two fairies slowly get up, and the blue haired one asks "hey, what were we supposed to do?"

The blonde one thinks for a moment, then says "clean the dining table! Whoever cleans faster is the winner!"

The two fairies try to get up, but the pain in their little bodies prevent them from moving, so the blue haired fairy, with a trembling voice, says "um, let's rest a bit before we go."

The blonde fairy nods and asks "sure, but why does it hurt so much?"

Reimu finally reaches the top where the door to the balcony is, but before she can open it, Sakuya appears right in front of her, looking dreadfully exhausted, panting while holding her chest.

Her bonnet looks worn and about to break along with her apron, and she herself looks as though could collapse at any time.

After taking in all the air she can, Sakuya still speaks out of breath, saying "I have to make you waste some energy before you meet my mistress, or she might get mad at me."

Reimu sweats, and sounding a bit annoyed, she asks "shouldn't you be out somewhere else, running some errands?"

Using what little strength she has left, Sakuya desperately launches her knives along with some kunai knives, unable to stop time anymore due to her exhaustion.

Seemingly annoyed, Reimu sways through the gaps between the many knives, gets closer to Sakuya, then pokes her forehead with her gohei, making her stop the attack.

Reimu sighs and says "you are too weak to keep this up, so why don't you just go and rest?"

Sakuya pulls a spell card from her apron and shouts "Conjuring, Eternal Meek!"

Sakuya starts throwing knives surrounded by a blue glow in a desperate and rapid manner all over the small room.

Reimu is grazed over and over by the blades, losing a good chunk of her red vest and some pieces of her white undershirt, as well as getting many holes on the back of her skirt.

Shocked, Reimu exclaims "you psychotic maid, you're gonna end up killing yourself!", then flies straight at Sakuya, taking advantage of the gap she left to her right side, then kicks her head and sends her crashing against the wall and falling to the small balcony floor in front of the door to the roof.

Reimu sighs, then says "you take it easy now. This will all be over soon."

Sakuya lies with her face on the floor and her right arm hanging over the small balcony's edge.

She whimpers, then whispers "I'm... sorry", before finally letting herself lose consciousness.

* * *

Reimu walks through the door and enters the large balcony on the roof with the large clock tower next to it.

She looks around and to the sky, then places her hands on her waist, sighs and asks "isn't it about time you showed yourself, young lady?"

Remilia reveals herself from behind the clock tower and says "I knew it. Humans are useless."

Reimu asks "was that girl really a human?"

Remilia asks "are you the murderer?"

Reimu smiles and chuckles as she says "don't worry, one kill doesn't make me a serial killer."

Though Remilia smiles, her eyes glow bright with anger as she bluntly asks "so what do you want?"

Reimu twitches and says "oh that's right. You and your mist are a bother, so could you please leave this place?"

Remilia smiles as she places a hand on her chest, then says "my, jumping to conclusions already, and you don't even know why. You're the one in my castle, so you're the one that should leave!"

A sweat drop falls form the back of Reimu's head as she chuckles, then sounding annoyed, she says "oh, I meant from this world, little girl."

Remilia scoffs and says "you're hopeless. To think I'm already full. Sakuya was such an excellent maid after all. That tea and those snacks really were something."

Reimu stares at Remilia in disbelief and asks "you sheltered little girl, are you actually strong at all?"

Remilia shrugs and says "I'm not sure. I'm not allowed outside often. Sunlight makes me weak."

Reimu's face turns deadly serious as she stares at Remilia, who slowly descends to the floor in front of the maiden and says "we'll use five of those stupid spell cards. You'll become my servant from this night forth."

Reimu smirks and says "oh, you'll be getting rid of that mist for me before morning comes."

Remilia and Reimu fly to the sky at the same time, as though synchronizing their moves, then point at each other with their right hands and speak at the same time, Reimu saying in an annoyed tone "looks like it's going to be a long night", and Remilia excitedly saying "looks like it's going to be a FUN night!"

Reimu and Remilia back away from each other and immediately start attacking, Reimu firing many needles and amulets, while Remilia shoots dense blue and scarlet orbs in a circular pattern from the palm of her hands.

Above the clock tower, it looks like there's a display of fireworks from the two girls locked in battle, their danmaku illuminating the already bright red night sky.

* * *

Reimu flies through Remilia's bullets with ease while throwing her own needles straight at the vampire, all while smiling.

Remilia smiles back while still shooting, then says "yes, that's it, you weakling. Smile while you can."

Right after she finishes her sentence, Remilia feels something smack her forehead, and immediately feels her skin burning up.

Her bullets stop while she screams out loud and flies in circles, doing all she can to pull off whatever is burning her forehead, and after Reimu giggles, the pain stops and a blue amulet with red ink falls right off Remilia's sizzling forehead.

Remilia turns her surprised face at Reimu, who giggles again and asks "what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Remilia's anger suddenly escalates, and in her rage and with raging tears under her glowing eyes, she pulls a spell card from under her hat and clenches is so tight it's crushed under her hand as she shouts "you little imp, take THIS! Heaven's Punishment, Star of David!"

Regardless of its state, the spell card glows scarlet before disappearing in front of Remilia, who extends her arms and legs and unleashes five glowing orbs that fire five thick scarlet beams that make ten more orbs of light that create 5 more beams each, which create twenty more orbs that fire five beams each.

Reimu sweats when she sees she's trapped inside a large scarlet net, but before she can think of something, the notices how from each of the source orbs, small blue orbs spread out in a circular and crossed formation.

Remilia watches with a wicked smile as Reimu seems to despair at the sight of her power, then thinks "yes, little human, despair. Be grateful, though. I am only using a mere fraction of my power. What the-?"

To Remilia's surprise Reimu starts flying so elegantly around and between the bullets and beams, she looks as though she's gracefully dancing around for mere entertainment as she smile while doing so.

Reimu manages to get close to Remilia just as the beams vanish, then strikes Remilia's head hard with her gohei, cancelling and capturing the spell card.

Remilia rubs her head with both hands while Reimu asks "giving up already?"

Remilia opens her eyes and looks at the large red moon behind her, then sighs and smiles, and says to herself "calm down Remilia. She's just a human, and you're just playing around, so it's alright."

Reimu has backed away from Remilia and now flies close to the clock, and unable to hear Remilia she angrily asks "hey, what are you mumbling to yourself over there?"

Remilia answers by raising both hands and throwing a concentrated scarlet mist at Reimu, and unlike the mist around Gensokyo, this one burns with power.

Feeling this power from afar, Reimu gasps and quickly flies away from the mist, keeping an eye on the remaining bits left behind, and even after being careful, she grazes one of the bits of mist with her leg, getting burned by its touch.

With a quick yelp, Reimu instinctively grabs hold of her leg in pain and without further thought, she pulls out a spell card and shouts "Spirit Sign, Fantasy Seal!"

Unlike with Sakuya, the colorful orbs fly around Reimu this time, and clean the air from Remilia's mist, then fly straight at the vampire, just as she throws another concentration of mist.

Her mist gets swallowed up by the orbs that continue their way to her, so Remilia shrieks and flaps her wings as fast as she can to get away from the orbs, but one of them flies ahead and cuts her off, and all five orbs strike her hard at the same time, burning her with their multi-elemental light.

Remilia screams out loud, though more with surprise than pain, and right after Reimu's attack stops, she pulls a spell card from her left skirt pocket and says "how dare you do that to me! Dark Sign, Scarlet Netherworld!"

Remilia surrounds herself with the same burning scarlet mist she was throwing all over before, then it rapidly blows over to Reimu in a spinning manner, giving her a very hard time to avoid being touched.

Remilia releases the rest of the mist, making it move in a clockwise and counter clockwise manner, causing Reimu to get burned around her legs and left arm.

Remilia laughs and shouts "what's the matter, too hot for you, miss maiden?"

Remilia immediately prepares another cloud of mist, but everything suddenly stops and Remilia stares blankly at the ground without saying a word.

When the remaining mist dissipates, Remilia looks at her hands and her abdomen, then notices the needles with charms, one stuck in each hand, and three more in her abdomen.

Her eyes glow bright as she growls, and using her energy, she pushes the needles out and away from her body, and sounding seemingly calm, she says "you are becoming a very annoying cockroach, you despicable human."

Reimu smirks and chuckles, then asks "oh my, did I do something wrong?"

Remilia sighs and calms down for real, then smiles and says "the night is still young."

Reimu smiles back looking back at Remilia with defiance, then says "just show me what you got, you sheltered vampire."

* * *

Remilia flies high to the air, going even higher than the sharp ornamental pike on top of her clock tower, and swinging each wing unleashes an innumerable barrage of daggers in arcs, though in straight lines.

Reimu smiles and positions herself so that the daggers all pass beside her, but Remilia is no fool and moves the formation around, yet Reimu simply moves very slightly to avoid being hit.

Smiling, yet showing her anger through her glowing eyes, Remilia stops her attack and rummages through her left skirt pocket again, then pulls out another spell card.

Reimu shrugs as she watches her prepare her third spell, and before Remilia declares it, she says out loud "I summon thee, Vlad Tepes, to watch as I smite the enemy that stands before us. Witness now as her blood becomes a sacrifice in the name of our own! Curse, Curse of Vlad Tepes!"

Daggers surrounded by a scarlet aura fly away from Remilia in an ominous, circular manner, releasing drops of blood that turn to danmaku orbs on their trail.

Reimu dodges the daggers with ease, and at first, the orbs are no problem to dodge, but Remilia releases another set of daggers, these moving in a counter-clockwise direction, and the danmaku blood orbs they release move to the sky, instead of the ground.

Reimu has no real trouble dodging the bullets and daggers, but she's finding herself being overwhelmed by the amount of orbs in the sky, and one of them grazes her shoulder, making her yelp, flinch and hold her own shoulder.

When she pulls her hand away from her shoulder, she realizes it's bleeding a little, and this makes her angry, making her two yin-yang orbs fly in rapid circles around her, then both she and the orbs fire countless amulets straight at the vampire.

The amulets in front break through a strange aura that surrounds Remilia, and the others stick themselves to her skin, causing her to lose her concentration, and with a loud scream, she drops to the ground.

As she falls, the amulets slide from her skin one by one, and right after the last one slides off, she turns into a bat just before touching the floor, then flies above Reimu and showers her with small scarlet shards in an uneven pattern.

Reimu tries to attack, but Remilia moves too fast and is too small in her bat form for her amulets or needles to hit, so all she can do is dodge the barrage.

Remilia takes her human form again, smiling as she looks down, giving Reimu a chance to attack, but as soon as the amulets get close enough, Remilia turns into a bat again and showers Reimu with dense scarlet orbs in straight and narrow lines, though as she moves around, Reimu has to move accordingly so she doesn't get hit.

Again, Remilia takes her human from and smiles as she says "face it, human. You don't stand a chance!"

Reimu tries her needles again, but Remilia quickly turns into a bat again and continues her attack, this time unleashing a very hot barrage of scarlet fireballs that, although they leave a large gap between the formation, some of the fireballs move out of formation at random.

Reimu has had enough, so she pulls out her next spell card and says "Dream Sign, Evil Sealing Circle."

Right after Reimu declares her spell, Remilia turns back to human and asks "what was that?"

A blue beam flies from Reimu's own body and straight to the sky, trapping Remilia in it, making her scream out as her entire skin feels as though is being burned by the very same rays from the sun.

After Reimu's attack ends, Remilia recovers and keeps in the air, noticing her skin is fine, yet still burns.

At first, she is in complete shock, but she suddenly starts to laugh and a spell card materializes right in front of her face.

She grabs it and while still smiling, she shouts "Scarlet Sign, Scarlet Shoot!"

Reimu notices the vampire is on edge, so she smirks and says "well, it looks like you're tired of me already- WHOA!"

Reimu is grazed by a thick scarlet mist that comes accompanied by burning blood drops and dense orbs that almost get her, if it weren't for her reflexes.

Remilia surrounds herself with the mist and the danmaku orbs again, but this time she concentrates the attack on Reimu only.

The maiden manages to move away from the attack, but quickly realizes the blood drops linger in the air before disappearing.

Enjoying the surprise in Reimu's face, Remilia surrounds herself with the mist and shouts "yes, fear my power human! This is why I am known as the scarlet devil!"

When Remilia releases the attack all around, she realizes Reimu is nowhere to be found.

She smiles, thinking she's attained victory, but senses the shrine maiden is behind herself too late, and Reimu strikes her down with a powerful kick that makes her spin like one of Marisa's stars before she finally stops, capturing Remilia's spell in the process.

Reimu glares at the vampire, raises her gohei, points it at her, then says "enough of this! You only have one spell left, and I've only used two. Stop being such a brat and take this mist away."

Remilia snarls and shouts "NEVER!", then manages to calm herself and says "I've only been toying with you so far, but enough is enough, human."

Remilia pulls a spell card from her right pocket, and with a wicked grin on her face, she says "you humans are all alike, thinking you are so strong. Well, you're wrong, and once this is over, I'll have you clean the basement bathroom with a sponge!"

Reimu sweats and says "now if you do that, I'll never finish."

Remilia calms down, thinking she has the maiden intimidated, then casually says "that's the idea."

* * *

Reimu glares at Remilia as she flies up and turns around to face her, the huge red full moon behind the vampire making her look even more menacing, and although the maiden wants to smirk, she suppresses her desire to do so and simply continues to glare in silence, even clenching her teeth.

Remilia's smile widens as her spell card begins to glow, and before declaring it, she asks "tell me, miss shrine maiden, what is your name?"

Reimu sternly replies "Reimu Hakurei, from the Hakurei clan, and current shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine that watches over the land of Gensokyo."

Remilia continues to smile as she says "well, miss Reimu, I hope you came prepared to have your fate changed to feet scrubber, because that's what I'll have you do for the rest of your miserable life!"

Reimu can't hold herself and smiles, though continues to scowl, which makes Remilia smile back at her in a wicked manner, then takes a deep breath and shouts "Red Magic!"

The spell's name echoes all over the mansion, and immediately, from Remilia's own body, dense blue orbs spread out in an arc all around her and set blood-colored orbs in their trail.

The spell looks slow and very easy to dodge, but something frightens Reimu, making her gasp and try to reach Remilia before the second wave, but it's too late, and the blood-colored orbs start to move about.

Before the second wave is done, Remilia unleashes the third wave, and by now, Reimu is having a hard time dodging through, and is unable to reach Remilia as she unleashes the fourth, fifth and sixth waves in a row.

The entire sky looks like one giant blood puddle, and the red moon behind it makes it look even more frightening, and in the middle of all of this is Remilia, whose eyes continue to glow, and her wicked smile continues to shine through.

With so many orbs in the sky, Reimu knows it's just a matter of time before she's caught, so she takes her chances and makes the desperate move of flying through the many blood-colored orbs.

As Reimu maneuvers herself through the orbs, going left and right, up and down, even having to retreat often, Remilia laughs and shouts "yes, yes! Go ahead and touch them already! Your fate is sealed! ...Wait, what-? Wh-why can't I change her fate? What's going on?"

Remilia's smile suddenly turns into a shocked frown as she looks at Reimu's determined face, flying through her bullets with all her speed and not even grazing them.

Remilia starts to feel fear, and as Reimu gets closer, she screams "no! Get away from me!"

Reimu is finally in range and pulls a spell card from under her right sleeve, then immediately shouts "Treasure Sign, Yin-Yang Orb!"

One of Reimu's yin-yang orbs flies in front of the spell card and absorbs it, then immediately glows bright gold and increases in size.

Remilia screams as the orb quickly flies to her, cancelling her own spell to try and cover her face with her arms, and in an instant, the large yin-yang orb sticks to her skin and starts to burn her, consuming her as though it were alive and eating her, burning her with white hot fire, then spitting her out and throwing her back on to the floor, and after Reimu lands in front of her, she slowly gets up, moaning in pain.

Looking at Reimu, Remilia thinks "what happened? Why couldn't I change her fate? This is impossible! I can see it, but I can't change it! Why?"

Reimu rests her gohei on her shoulder and bends over to offer a hand to Remilia, saying "I'll expect that mist to be gone by morning, oaky?"

Remilia is lost inside her mind while looking at Reimu's face, unaware that she accepted the maiden's helping hand, thinking "I completely underestimated her! She's powerful. Much more powerful than this. Remilia, why did you do that? Ugh, why the hell is this happening?"

Reimu takes a deep and relaxing breath, her face turns calm and soothing, and even her aura seems to turn so peaceful, it relaxes even Remilia, and as she heads to the door back to the mansion, she says "well, I guess that's it. Remember to keep your word, you hear?"

Reimu is just about to enter the door, but before she touches the knob, Remilia angrily shouts "wait! Let's have a rematch!"

Reimu turns her face to Remilia and her aura immediately starts to change and fill with energy as she asks "what? What are you talking about?"

Remilia clenches her fist behind her skirt and says "you only won because I underestimated you and went soft on you! All because of those stupid spell card rules! Fight me properly! Fight me at my FULLEST! Let us both fight at our fullest, Hakurei!"

Reimu stares at Remilia and is about to decline, then Remilia suddenly says "let us fight at full power, Reimu. Show to me your power! ...If you win I pledge to you my allegiance! I will help you care for Gensokyo, I will never kill a human, I will even allow you entrance to my mansion."

Reimu quietly stares at Remilia, who continues "your friends will be my friends. Your enemies will become my enemies as well! If you win, I will hold to this pact I'm making here tonight, right now, and will keep it for as long as there is a Hakurei alive in your clan!"

Reimu silently stares at Remilia for some time, then suddenly throws a white talisman with black symbols on it at her.

The second Remilia touches it, she feels herself recovering all her lost power, then Reimu says "I will not soil our agreement. Let us both fight at full power now. This battle will end when one of us either gives up, or is unable to move."

Remilia's face turns calm as she looks at Reimu's resolute face, then nods and flies to the air. Reimu follows afterward, thinking "I don't know why I'm doing this. Is this fate, or something else? Regardless, I need to get ready... She seems more powerful now. Reimu, focus, and remember, you are the maiden of Hakurei. You cannot allow yourself to lose."

Remilia flies up along with Reimu and thinks "this human is much more powerful than I could have ever though a human could be. She even surpasses my own power. I know this is a losing battle, but there's something I need to see. Her power is just unbelievable. I need to see it! I have to see I didn't lose to just any human!"

Once in the air, Reimu and Remilia stare at each other as though looking for something inside each others' eyes. A cold eastern wind passes by them, then both get ready to attack.

* * *

Inside Patchouli's library, Patchouli, Marisa and Koakuma look out the window and watch as Remilia falls to Reimu's golden yin-yang.

Marisa sighs and says "maybe I should have warned that mistress of yours that Reimu just can't be beat."

Patchouli angrily says "her name is Remilia! Remilia Scarlet! How many times do I have to repeat the name?"

Marisa raises her hands defensively and says "alright, alright! Geez, I'm sorry already."

Koakuma looks to the ground next to Patchouli's feet and asks "well, what's going to happen now?"

Patchouli sighs, then says "I really don't... wait."

Patchouli raises her head, showing terror in her gaze, frightening Koakuma and Marisa as well.

Koakuma asks "what's the matter lady...? What's that?"

Marisa raises her head and says "I feel something weird."

Patchouli looks outside the window and watches as Remilia and Reimu take flight once more.

She starts to shiver and cough, then falls on her knees to the ground.

Showing a bit of concern, Koakuma asks "Patchouli, are you alright?"

Marisa adds "she's a very sickly girl."

Patchouli springs from the floor and grabs Marisa by her vest and shouts "HELP ME SPEAD THE PROTECTION, NOW!"

Marisa casually says "back away, ze. Why should I help you any-?"

Patchouli presses her forehead on to Marisa's and sounding very agitated, she says "if you don't help me now I'm going to release Koakuma's TRUE form, and I'll have her do to you so many things, you'll wish for a quick DEATH long before she is done breaking your spirit!"

Marisa's skin turns pale as she looks at Koakuma's disturbingly wicked and ominous grin, then looks back at Patchouli, gulps, and says "j-just tell me what to do."

Outside, above the roof's balcony, Remilia and Reimu continue to stare at each other, while Marisa flies around the mansion as fast as she can, placing books and drawing magical circles around the mansion, while Patchouli stands at the gate and chants as loud as she can, having Meiling hold her on her feet in case she starts coughing again.

Reimu and Remilia scream as they suddenly point their hands at each other, and from their hands, a blue and a scarlet beam rush to meet their opponents, only to crash and cause a large spark, just as Patchouli finishes her incantation.

The spark alone has enough power to turn the entire mansion to rubble, but Patchouli's protection weakens it, causing it only to destroy part of the hallway.

Marisa exclaims "WOW! What the hell are they thinking?"

She flies down to the mansion's western side and draws a purple magical circle, activating it with haste and giving Patchouli's own protection more power.

With that, she flicks her hat and says "back to the library, ze."

* * *

Remilia and Reimu fly at each other and use both their bodies and magic as powerful weapon, each clash sending large sparks toward the mansion that could destroy it, yet thanks to Patchouli's and Marisa's protection, the sparks weaken and bounce to the ground.

Remilia smiles and laughs as she backs away from Reimu, then says "take a look at my favorite spell! Divine Spear, Spear of the Gungnir!"

Remilia cuts her forearm and uses her blood to summons a spear the same size as the one she used to deal with the other vampires, making herself look tiny next to it.

Reimu gasps and shouts "Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!"

Remilia tosses her gigantic spear straight at Reimu, just as ten large orbs of five colors surround her.

The spells crash and cause a powerful magical reaction that makes Patchouli and Meiling fall on their backs, and also cause most of the windows of the mansion in the area to shatter.

Reimu's orbs hold, though five of them are consumed, so she uses the other five to chase after Remilia.

The vampire smiles as she flies away from the attack, but the orbs are locked on her and won't go away, so she flies to Reimu, and just before the first orb touches her foot, she dives and sinks her claws on the maiden's left calf, making Reimu scream as she flies away, and then Remilia gets hit hard by the one of the five remaining orbs, screaming louder and louder after the rest of the orbs strike one by one, and her screams causes the unconscious Sakuya to moan and attempt to get back up, but she just falls back on the small balcony inside the tall tower.

Remilia is still able to fly, but the upper left half of her dress is gone, and her left wing seems is about to turn to ashes.

Reimu grabs her calf and places a charm on it to stop the bleeding, then quickly recovers to find Remilia flying far behind her, ready for the next attack.

Remilia smiles and says "my name is Remilia Scarlet of the Scarlet clan. I am a descendant of Vlad Tepes! I will not yield to you that easily, Reimu Hakurei of the Hakurei clan!"

She pulls out a spell card and shouts "Midnight King, Dracula Cradle!"

Reimu pulls out her next spell card from under her sleeve, but before she declares it, she releases as many blue and yellow amulets as she can all around herself, then flies away.

Remilia surrounds herself in scarlet energy, then flies down to her mansion and uses a wall to impulse herself back up, using so much power, the wall turns to dust after she bounces off it.

Remilia starts to spin around and breaks through Reimu's amulets like they were mere pieces of paper fluttering in the wind, then heads straight to Reimu, who surrounds her gohei with a blue energy and uses it to bat Remilia's head and send her elsewhere.

Remilia uses the momentum of the impact and wills herself to turn to Reimu once more.

Reimu sees the attack coming straight at her again, then shouts "Holy Relic, Yin-Yang Sanctifier Orb!"

Both orbs join together and form a massive yin-yang orb ten time Reimu's own size, and Remilia is out of control and is unable to stop herself.

She spins straight into the burning orb of white light and starts to scream loud once more, then stops.

At first, Reimu looks down, thinking she'll see Remilia falling to the ground, but she suddenly gasps and tries to fly upward, but quickly finds herself being struck hard on the abdomen by Remilia' who regardless of the pain she felt, when through the orb to strike Reimu.

Remilia takes advantage of her spinning and swings another claw at Reimu's right arm, tearing her sleeve off and leaving a bloody gash on her forearm.

Reimu screams and manages to free herself from Remilia, who continues falling straight to the roof's balcony, where she crashes down hard, making a crater on the floor, regardless of the protections.

Clenching her teeth from the pain, Reimu uses more charms to stop the blood from flowing out of her arm, then takes many deep breathes before she recovers.

Remilia slowly gets back up, then notices Reimu still isn't ready, so with a wide and wicked grin on her face, she shouts "Divine Spear, Spear of the Gungnir!", then immediately launches her spear straight at Reimu.

The maiden manages to dodge the spear just in time, then spins to dodge another, and another, all of the spears of great size, and all tearing a bit of clothes every time they graze her.

Remilia continues her relentless attack, and watches as Reimu dives down, dodging all the spears, then tries to kick her head.

Remilia throws herself to the ground to avoid the attack, allowing Reimu to fly over her, then pushes herself back up with her hands and she and Reimu silently glare at each other from across the balcony once again.

* * *

Reimu and Remilia pull their spell cards and declare their spells at the same time, Remilia shouting "Divine Spear, Spear of the Gungnir!", and Reimu shouting "Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!"

Remilia holds one spear on each hand, each twice her own size, while Reimu summons to her twenty of her five colored elemental orbs, and continues to summon them as she sends one after another at Remilia.

Remilia uses her spears to deflect each orb, sending them toward the Lake, causing massive explosions that make it seem as though the lake's water will get drained through a hole, however, the water just splashes back in place.

Reimu, not wanting to cause any harm to the lands, starts throwing each orb away from Remilia so they come from behind when they turn around.

Remilia skillfully spins her spears around, jumping around like an acrobat and breaking away each orb, getting closer to Reimu after each jump, then suddenly turns around and lunges her left spear straight to the maiden's heart, but Reimu uses one of the orbs to protect herself, and pushing the orb with her own hands, she makes sure to keep the spear's sharp head away from herself, though the intense power being used causes her left sleeve, what little is left of her vest, and her white undershirt to slowly get consumed.

Ten orbs fly straight at Remilia from her back, but Remilia is aware, so just as they are about to hit her, she jumps away and lets them hit Reimu instead, causing a powerful explosion that cause the tiles of the floor beneath her feet to rattle.

She merges both spears and makes her giant spear once more, then smiles as she stares at the dissipating cloud where Reimu was standing.

Reimu stands straight, looking back at Remilia with a cold and stern face, and with thirty orbs flying all around her.

All the orbs merge into five giant orbs, each twice as large as Reimu herself, and waiting no longer, Remilia launches her spear again.

Reimu launches a single orb to contend against Remilia's giant scarlet spear, both spell crashing against each other and sending out giant sparks that explode violently on the ground, leaving small craters around the outside of the mansion, while the mansion continues to be protected by Patchouli's and Marisa's magic protections.

Remilia's spear gets consumed by Reimu's single orb, then Remilia watches in horror as the other four orbs join in to chase after her.

While this happens, Reimu starts to chant and move as though dancing around with her gohei, while Remilia tries to fly away from those orbs.

In a desperate attempt to escape, Remilia uses all the strength she can muster to get far away from the homing orbs, pulls out a spell card, then shouts out loud "SCARLET GENSOKYO!"

Remilia unleashes massive orbs in circular arcs around herself that leave a large trail of blood-red orbs in their path and sends them all straight at Reimu.

The maiden doesn't notice the attack in time, and by the time she does, she manages to dodge at least two of the six massive orbs headed her way, causing her to scream out loud as the orbs explode on her.

Three of Reimu's own orbs split into eighteen smaller orbs that fly faster than the two remaining giant orbs, and all crash against Remilia's defenses, clearing a path through the blood red sea of orbs, allowing the two larger orbs to go through to Remilia, who can only gasp and say "oh shit!"

As soon as those orbs impact, Remilia screams so loud her scream reaches all the way across the Misty Lake.

Reimu's orbs feel as though the very sun is inside her skin, burning every single part of her body to ashes, yet keeping her alive to endure the pain for what seems like an eternity.

After it stops, Remilia falls back to the rooftop's balcony and crashes on the ground, leaving yet another crater, this one so deep it almost breaks through the floor.

Reimu struggles to get back up, only a small piece of her white shirt remains, her left shoe is gone, the lower half of her skirt is gone as well, and blood rushes down her forehead.

Remilia has a harder time standing up, her dress is almost completely gone, her undergarments look like worn cloths, her right wing is gone, and her left wing is in ruins, yet she manages to get up.

The girls breathe heavily as they look at each other, then smile and chuckle.

Without saying another word, each girl pulls a single spell card, as if agreeing on one more spell.

Reimu and Remilia slowly waddle toward each other, both exhausted and on their limit, but then they both start running and manage a war cry as they get closer.

Once in range, Remilia and Reimu declare their spell cards at the same time, Remilia shouting "Scarlet Devil, Scarlet DEVIL!", and Reimu shouting "Divine Arts, Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle!"

Remilia manages to fly in the air, even without her wings, as her familiar scarlet flame cross forms itself around her, while Reimu surrounds herself by an intense golden pillar.

Both spells are so gigantic and intense, they illuminate the night all around, and traces of the spells can even be seen all the way back at the Human Village.

The two spells crash against each other, causing violent tremors all over the mansion and the lake, causing large waves at the lake that scare the fairies and youkai right out of their homes and the immediate area, away from the Scarlet Mansion and the lake.

Reimu grunts as she uses every ounce of strength in her to keep her spell going, but Remilia is already losing her consciousness, and just as she falls into darkness, Reimu's spell breaks through Remilia's, making her wake up to the violently painful reality of her loss.

As she screams, her mind wanders around, thinking on her past.

She sees Meiling, guarding her gate without question, and thinks "I've really hated living here so much."

She sees an image of Patchouli supporting her and teaching her about things she wouldn't be interested in, then thinks "I lost Flan, my life... everything."

She sees Sakuya serving her tea and a beautifully prepared cake, something she missed so much from her home before that massacre, then thinks "but now, at the end, I realize... I had it all again, and maybe... maybe even better than before."

She sees an image of herself being surrounded by her new servants, and a small shadow with odd, but colorful wings, then shouts "I don't want to die~!"

The image of her servants flow through her mind once more as she thinks "I got a new home, new servants... no, a new family. Yes, they truly are like family... but what about Flandre?"

Reimu calls off her spell and Remilia falls to the floor, yet to her it feels as though she's surrounded in darkness and is unaware that the attack had stopped.

Right after she falls to the floor, she thinks "Flan, come back to me. I want you to be part of my family again."

A tear escapes her left eye as the image of all her servants, even her fairy maids, and Flandre as well, are all grouped together and welcoming her with open arms, and after seeing this, she thinks "in the end... this land... is..."

* * *

Reimu sits on the floor next to Remilia, holding herself up with her arms as she takes long, recuperating breaths.

The clock tower's door suddenly bursts open, and Sakuya slowly makes her way to her mistress, throwing herself on her knees and sliding next to the vampire, weakly exclaiming "mistress Remilia!"

She looks at Reimu and snarls, then says "I'm going to kill you for this!"

Reimu manages to lift her arm, making Sakuya stop speaking, and speaking out of breath, she manages to say "she's... alive. Gee, what... an annoying... little human you... you are."

From behind Reimu, Marisa's terrorized voice reaches the maiden as she shouts "Reimu, you crazy, blockheaded fool, what the hell happened? I though you beat her already! What gives? What's the big idea?"

Marisa kneels down and wraps Reimu's arm around her neck, helping Reimu up as she says "calm down. I'm just tired. You don't need to shout."

Marisa readies her broom, where she already has a small sack with books tied to it, so she can take Reimu back home, but before she can sit her friend on it, Remilia manages to weakly says "wait."

Reimu and Marisa lift their heads to Remilia, who rests on Sakuya's arms.

Remilia raises her arm to Reimu, signaling she wants to get closer, so Sakuya walks closer to the maiden and the witch.

Remilia struggles to lift her hand to Reimu's forehead, then swipes some blood from her, then places it on her own lips, but doesn't drink it.

She smiles at Reimu and weakly says "The pact... is sealed. And... thank... you."

With that, Remilia finally falls unconscious on Sakuya's arms, smiling like she did when she was living in the hidden misty land she used to call her home.

Marisa looks curiously at Reimu, then back at Remilia, unaware of what happened, then shrugs and says "whatever. Let's get you home, Reimu. We need to treat those gashes and get you some clothes. You're a maiden after all! Being all shameless like that!"

With that, Marisa sits Reimu and herself on the broom, letting her friend rest on her shoulder as she lifts off and flies back to the shrine, shouting "and don't forget about the mist!"

Sakuya looks at her mistress, smiling as she lies on her hands, then sighs and softly says "let's go inside, my lady."

As Sakuya slowly makes her way back inside, Meiling reaches she roof and runs straight at the girls, wrapping Sakuya's arm around her own neck and helping her and their mistress back inside.

* * *

2 Days Later

At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, after having rested well and recovered from her battle with Reimu, Remilia has called her servants for a very important meeting inside the main hall.

The last one to arrive to the room is Meiling, who nervously enters the room.

She walks through the fairies and stands between Sakuya and Patchouli, both looking as nervous as Meiling herself.

When they are all ready, Remilia raises her head from her large seat, then all the chattering fairies quiet down.

Remilia stares at all of them, placing particular attention on Meiling, Patchouli and Sakuya, and their depressed and fearful faces, black shadows cast over their eyes.

She gets off her chair and looks at them sternly, then says "we go beat, and quite badly, by no more than two humans!"

Raising her voice at the end of her sentence, all the servants, including the fairy maids, all lower their faces, as though trying to bury them from their shame.

Remilia smiles, then sighs and says "but I'm not mad. You all gave it your all, just as I'd expect from anyone that lives inside this mansion!"

Everyone raises their heads and start looking at each other in surprise, Sakuya revealing her blue eyes to the rest.

Remilia continues "however, it is clear you all need to work a little harder so something like this doesn't happen again. Even with this spell card rule, we should be able to fend off ANY intruder! I want you all to train harder until you all improve those skills you already posses. I hope I have made myself clear!"

All the servants smile at Remilia, all happy to know they aren't being kicked out, shunned, or punished, then they all salute Remilia and say "yes' my lady Remilia" at the same time.

Remilia smiles and softly says "good. Now, there is something very important you all need to know."

Sakuya asks "is it about that shrine maiden, my lady?"

Remilia smiles proudly and says "very good, Sakuya. You see, from now on, she is your ally and friend. She and ALL her friends are welcome inside this mansion. We are to also help her take care of this land, OUR home, to the best of our abilities."

Patchouli asks "well, that sounds easy enough, but Remi... what exactly happened?"

Remilia smiles proudly once more, then says "I want you all in the best shape you can get, and that includes you, Patchy. It would be quite terrible if something were to happen to you, to any of you. After all..."

Remilia looks at her servants through the corner of her eyes and with a bright smile she tries to hide, then says "this place just wouldn't be home without you."

Everyone, from Sakuya to the two little blonde and blue haired fairies, smile brightly after hearing Remilia say those words.

Remilia recovers her stern face, then loudly says "well, get going. Do your chores and start working on improving yourselves! Make me proud!"

The servants leave the room with bright smiles on their faces, except for Sakuya, who stays behind and waits for the others to leave before bowing to the ground and placing her head on the carpet, saying "I'm so sorry, my lady! I'll do my best to improve, to be able to serve and protect you, should something like this ever happen again!"

Without turning around, and sounding very stern, Remilia says "Sakuya, I'm going to visit the shrine. Please watch over the mansion while I'm gone."

Sakuya slowly gets back up and watches as Remilia walks by her and exits the door behind her, but before she leaves, she says "there's nothing to forgive, Sakuya. I already told you, you all did your best. I am just glad to see you are all alive and well."

Remilia closes the door behind her, leaving Sakuya with a bright smile on her face and sniffling as she stands up, allowing her tears of joy escape her eyes as she thinks "in the end, I owe her so much. Even now, after my failure, I am still allowed to serve her. Some might call her a devil, but to me, she's an angel in disguise."

Sakuya sighs, looks around, and immediately starts with her cleaning duties by dusting the small ornamental table by the room's entrance.

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu sweeps some leaves from the left side of the courtyard, then stops to swipe the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve.

The only thing she can hear is the sound of the cicadas and leaves blowing in the wind on her deserted shrine, relaxing herself to the point of falling asleep while holding her broom, but quickly wakes up when she hears a very familiar voice at the gate of her shrine.

Remilia lands quietly on the shrine grounds, looks around, then says "boy, this place sure is empty."

Reimu gets a bit annoyed at her comment, then says "that's none of your business! And what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be turning to ashes because of the sun or something?"

Remilia holds a parasol above her head as she smiles at Reimu and says "no, I said sunlight weakens me."

Reimu gets annoyed again and rushes to Remilia, then asks "wait a minute, how the hell can you be here?"

Remilia smiles and replies "as long as I have my parasol, I can go wherever I want. It's pretty convenient."

Steam blows out of Reimu's ears as she wraps her arm around Remilia's neck and pulls her parasol away, angrily asking "if it's so convenient, why the hell did you spread that annoying mist for?"

Remilia gasps as she tries to reach for her parasol, and shouts "wait, Reimu! Direct sunlight can kill me!"

Reimu tightens her arm and speaks through her teeth as she says "well, how about just a little bit of sunlight. You are sickeningly pale!"

Remilia shouts "no~ I'll turn to ashes before I'll get tanned!"

Reimu grunts "that's not a problem!"

Remilia cries "but if I turn to ashes and you breathe them in, you'll become immortal!"

Reimu immediately lets Remilia go, smiles, then says "heh, that would be bad, wouldn't it. But maybe I'll just extend my life if I breathe in a little."

Remilia grabs her parasol from Reimu's hand and covers herself with it once more, then says "I don't think that's a good idea."

Reimu smiles, sighs, then says "yeah, I guess you're right. Whatever, I'll make some tea."

Remilia asks "uu, do you have any red tea?"

Reimu smiles sheepishly as a sweat drop falls from the back of her head, then says "er, I don't think I have that kind of tea here."

Remilia sighs and shrugs, then says "I guess I can try it without the red stuff..."

* * *

Later that day, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Marisa stands on the railed edge of the well-shaded second floor balcony, admiring the garden below.

She looks back and says "this place is boring."

Sakuya calmly replies "you're the one that keeps coming over. Why don't you just go home?"

Marisa smiles and says "I don't wanna."

Marisa stares at Sakuya for a moment, then asks "hey, I'm a guest her, so where's my tea and snack?"

Sakuya sighs and says "please go home."

Marisa ignores Sakuya and asks "hey, where's Remilia?"

Patchouli suddenly speaks from behind Marisa, making the black and white witch shriek and jump in place, as she says "Remi's been going outside more often now."

Sakuya adds "and she seems different. She seems to be at peace."

Patchouli stares at Sakuya and says "you seem somewhat different as well. You seem more calm and joyous."

Sakuya giggles after placing a cup full of red tea and a piece of cake on the balcony's table, then says "well, seeing my lady so happy makes me feel very happy too."

Patchouli stares at Sakuya and thinks "so these are the effects of the master and servant pact."

Marisa takes a sip form her tea and asks "hey, why is this so red?"

Sakuya replies "that tea is special. I used a very rare leaf that can only be-"

Marisa cuts Sakuya's explanation as she asks "yeah yeah, what's in this cake?"

Sakuya smiles and says "It's very special, and my mistress' favorite. I used a very special flower that grow from the bamboo."

Marisa asks "are you trying to poison me?"

Sakuya replies "you should be thankful. These flowers take fifty years to bloom, but with my powers of time manipulation, I can make them bloom instantly."

Unimpressed, Marisa says "yeah, yeah, whatever."

Remilia flies from outside to the balcony and angrily says "HEY, stop drinking my tea and eating my snacks!"

Patchouli casually says "welcome back, Remi."

Sakuya smiles and says "don't worry my lady, I've made plenty. It has your favorite leaf, and I added that flower you like so much to the cake."

Like a child, Remilia extend her arms, drops her parasol on the floor, and gleefully exclaims "yay! My favorite!"

Marisa stares at her tea with suspicion and asks "you poisoned me, didn't you?"

Sakuya smiles and says "there's no reason to do that yet."

Marisa sweats and stars at Sakuya in disbelief, but shrugs and drinks her tea without question.

Down at the basement, Flandre can hear Marisa's voice all the way inside her room.

She sits with her back against the wall, hugging her knees as she sways back and forth, softly giggling to herself.

She can hear Patchouli angrily calling out to Marisa, then says "that human is back... that Marisa. I... I want to meet her. I want to play with that human!"

At first, she starts to giggle in a disturbing manner, but quiets down and starts sobbing.

She splits herself up into 3 more selves, and one of them bends down to pat her back and say "it's ok Flandre. You'll play with her, you'll see. We will all play with her."

* * *

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Some dialogue was taken from the EoSD game, so I give credit to ZUN and the translators of said dialogues for those.

AUG 11 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**Geez, I really wanted to finish this story in this chapter so I could start working on my next Sukima. I am quite eager to start working on it. Alas, the events with Remilia are long and quite epic, really. Well, at least our vampire has most of her life back, though, she's had it back for a while, but just didn't notice it. Really, it sometimes take a hard push for us to see that which we already have. It's sad to realize the value of that which we had after its gone, so it's important to keep a weathered eye open and enjoy all that surrounds us. Next chapter is the Extra Stage, where Reimu and Marisa meet with the sister of the Scarlet Devil. I guess after what Reimu went through when fighting Remilia that second time, it lets us know she'll be fine against Flandre (after all, the spell card rules are in effect when she meets that cute and destructive vampire). As for Marisa... Nah, I'll reserve my comments until after the chapter.**

**Seriously though, after writing this, I feel more respect toward both Reimu and Remilia. They both fought hard and with honor, but honestly, that human is something, isn't she? It's not every day you contend against a vampire and live to tell the tale! Ah well, thank you very much for reading, and know that I truly appreciate it when you leave your comments/reviews. Makes me very glad to know my work is liked, so please keep leaving your comments/reviews. Until next chapter, take care!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:**

**This chapter contains no bloody scenes, so do enjoy yourselves. Also note that although I am going as canonically accurate as possible to what ZUN's SDM story goes, he is vague, and I'm filling in those vague gaps with what I believe happened. Also note this is the first part of the final chapter, and although I thought I could finish it already, I learned it was better to split it in the end. Comments/reviews are welcome, though you may save them for the next chapter if you like. Thank you for reading, and enjoy.

* * *

**

Five days have passed since the incident with the scarlet mist was solved, and Remilia was forced to open her eyes to a wonderful reality of her current life that seemed to escape her often.

It's late noon at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and Marisa flies above the gates with a confident smirk on her face, saying to herself "I've been visiting too often during the day, and they all seem annoyed, so maybe a night visit won't make them so mad, ze."

As she flies over the gates, she notices Meiling is missing from her post.

She finds this odd, but shrugs it off and continues her way.

She tries the second floor balcony's doors, but they are locked, then she tries the main entrance, but it's also locked.

The east entrance, and even the western entrance, all the doors appear to be locked tight.

Frustrated, Marisa stomps the ground next to the red flowerbed, and angrily says "grr, what's with all the door today? It's as if they were expecting me! How annoying."

Marisa scratches the left side of her head and looks around, thinking "come to think of it, I haven't seen a single fairy at all, not out here or through the windows... Could they be avoiding me? Nah, those fairies aren't that smart."

Marisa looks to the clock tower and smiles, remembering there is a door there.

As she flies over, she says to herself "well, if it's closed, I'm going to blast it open."

She lands next to the door and quickly turns the brand new elegant gold handle, and smiles wide when she hears it click open.

Chuckling, she says to herself "alright, let's brighten their evening, ze!"

Meanwhile, Remilia and Sakuya arrive at the Hakurei Shrine and land halfway up the stairs.

Sakuya holds Remilia's parasol and covers her mistress from the bit of sun left, and looking curiously at Remilia, she asks "my lady, if this is urgent, why don't we just fly over?"

Remilia smiles and calmly says "it's alright Sakuya, just admire the scenery."

They quietly make their way up the stairs, and when they finally reach the top, Sakuya gasps in amazement.

She looks around and admires the lonely donation box across the courtyard after the gates, in front of what looks like a small extension of a large shrine.

With awe in her voice, Sakuya says "well, this place is actually bigger than I thought it'd be."

From the left side of the shrine, Reimu shouts "I heard that!"

Remilia and Sakuya quickly make their way to Reimu, only to find her stretching her right arm and yawning loudly, slightly covering her mouth with her left hand, making it look as though she's about to eat it whole.

Reimu looks with her bored eyes at Remilia and Sakuya, and sounding annoyed, she asks "what are you doing here?"

Remilia stares back at Reimu with desperate and urgent eyes, so the maiden looks back more serious, snapping out of her boredom before nodding and asking "it's that important, huh?"

Moments later, Remilia, Sakuya and Reimu sit by the small table at the Shrine's living room, with green tea in front of each, and some cookies on a plate in the center of the table.

Remilia, sounding a bit sad, suddenly says "I wouldn't bother you if it wasn't crucially necessary, Reimu. I told you about her, and what happened, and... well."

Remilia is ashamed to admit she is afraid of her own little sister, and noticing this, Sakuya says "she won't listen to us, so we thought that maybe you could persuade her to go back to her room."

Reimu doesn't hide her annoyance, growling before saying "you're all just a lot of trouble. Fine, I'll go. I'll set her straight!"

Reimu stands up, ready to fly over to the mansion, but Remilia places her hand on the maidens elbow to get her attention, and with a worried face she gently rubs Reimu's sleeve and says "please, Reimu, don't be too hard on her. She's just a little girl, and she doesn't fully understand what she's doing."

Reimu stares into Remilia's worried eyes and sighs, understanding Remilia's plight, then says "fine, but I think some trouncing is in order. Don't worry, I won't get too carried away."

With that, Reimu flies away, while Sakuya and Remilia stay at the shrine, Sakuya eating the surprisingly tasty cookies, and Remilia staring with longing glassy eyes toward Reimu, thinking "Flan... Please Flan, be good. Don't give her a reason to seal you. I don't want you to go."

* * *

Reimu arrives to the mansion's front gates later that evening, when the sun is just about ready to set, and immediately takes notice of Meiling's absence.

As she rummages through her pocket, she thinks "so Meiling is already gone. She wasn't kidding. I better hurry before she decides to go outside."

Pulling out a golden key from her pocket, Reimu opens the front door and immediately locks it again after entering and closing the door behind herself.

Meanwhile, inside a very dark corner of the mansion, two red dots shine through the dark shadows, and the creepy voice of a little girl comes through, singing "Ten little indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine..."

Meanwhile, Reimu begins her search at the mansion's dining room, only slightly aware of the danger she is really in, and as she continues her search, the little girl's voice seems to echo as she sings "Nine little indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight..."

Reimu continues her search, going to the first floor, saying to herself "this is so annoying. And where are those fairy maids? I tell you, this house is so darn creepy and silent without them around."

There is a loud clang coming from the floor below that catches Reimu's full attention, and as she hurriedly flies down, the little girl's voice continues her song "Eight little indian boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven~... Hehehe~"

Reimu reaches the basement and goes straight into Patchouli's library, whispering "Patchouli~ Are you in here?"

Reimu hears some rummaging coming from a few bookshelves in front, so she decides to fly up to make as little noise as possible.

She sees something moving about the dark floor of the library as the little girl's voice sings "Seven little indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six... Tee-hee."

Reimu drops down and grabs the moving person, making her scream out loud and drop many books all over the floor.

When she gets a better look, she gets annoyed and exclaims "Marisa, what the hell are you doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous now?"

Marisa holds her beating chest, taking calming breaths as she looks back while trembling, and after recovering she gulps and says "Reimu! Y-y-you scared me!"

Reimu is about to strike Marisa on the head, but a sudden bump from nearby startles both girls, then Reimu asks "what was that?"

Marisa shrugs and says "I don't know. I've been hearing many things while in here. Must be some weird and useless defense by Patchouli or something."

Reimu asks "have you seen anyone at all?"

Marisa rubs her chin while in thought, then says "actually, I've only seen you."

There is another loud bump that gets both girls' attention, so Reimu takes flight and says "you're coming with me, no questions!"

Marisa covers her disappointed eyes with her hat, grabs her broom, and as she flies away she says "gee, just when I was having so much fun."

As the girls make their way farther inside the increasingly dark basement, the little girl's voice sings "Six little indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five..."

Reimu and Marisa arrive to a room with a forced-open thick metal door, and immediately they notice the broken toys, destroyed furniture, and a mirror that seems to be intact inside the room.

Marisa looks around and comments "whoa, Sakuya must not come here often, ze."

Reimu grabs one of the toys from the floor and looks at the large cuts where the stuffing comes out, then notices the seemingly intact mirror.

She gets closer and notices some dried blood on the golden base behind it, then realizes there is a bit more trickling down the already dried bloodstain.

She stares seriously at the blood and then backs away, hurriedly saying "Marisa, OUT!"

Marisa knows that tone and runs out, then she and Reimu fly away from the basement as fast as they can. Behind the mirror, a pair of glowing red eyes stare toward the door, and immediately chases after the girls.

As they fly back to the first floor, the little girl's voice sings more excitedly "Five little indian boys going in for law, hahaha~; One got in Chancery and then there were four..."

Reimu and Marisa reach the grand hallway and immediately notice how dark it is, even with the little bit of light that comes through the window, causing the carpet to look more blue than red.

Reimu feels a presence and with a stern voice, she says "something's coming!"

Marisa and Reimu look all around, but it's so dark they can barely see what's up ahead, unaware they are being watched by a pair of bright red eyes that hide high above on the dark ceiling.

* * *

For a moment, everything seems to settle down, but then Reimu looks to the corridor ahead, her eyes having gotten accustomed to the darkness, then shouts "Marisa, get ready!"

Right after Reimu finishes her sentence, a large number of frightened fairies fly straight at them, shouting "get her! Don't let her escape. Someone get the little mistress to her room!"

Marisa and Reimu find themselves dodging intense attacks from the fairies, and without question, they both sooth back with all they've got.

Marisa exclaims "whoa, what's with these fairies?"

Reimu shouts "geez, all this opposition, just because of that girl?"

The fairies that escape Marisa and Reimu continue to fly away, as though terrorized by something else, while the dead and knocked out ones lie silently on the carpet.

Agitated, Marisa shouts "what the hell is going on, Reimu?"

A familiar voice says "back again?"

Marisa looks in front and sees Patchouli flying up in front of her, then asks "you? Are you causing all of this?"

Patchouli looks at Reimu and bows her head, then says "please do not interfere."

Marisa smirks and says "so you're still sore about me kicking your butt last time, huh?"

A vein pulsates on Patchouli's forehead as she calmly says "today I feel great, so I thought it's a good opportunity to show you my newest and best spells!"

Marisa pulls out a spell card from under her hat and with a confident smirk, she says "I'm in the mood to beat you again, so sure."

Patchouli immediately opens her book, and from its pages a spell card float out, then she loudly says "Moon Sign, Silent Selene!"

Beams of blue light and white sparks fly from underneath Patchouli and rain down on Marisa, who yawns and asks "is that all?", then starts swaying through the beams and sparks.

Patchouli growls softly when she realizes there's a green spark headed straight to her face, so she closes her book and raises her hand, cancelling her spell and allowing Marisa to capture the spell card in order to protect herself with a small bubble.

Marisa smirks, but Patchouli immediately opens her book again and reveals another spell card, then loudly shouts "Sun Sign, Royal Flare~!"

Marisa opens her eyes wide as she exclaims "whoa, a solar spell in the night!"

From the center between Marisa and Patchouli, a small sun forms up, illuminating the grand hallway enough for Reimu to catch a quick glimpse of Flandre, who stares at them from the ceiling before running away from the light.

As this happens, Flandre continues her song, singing in a more macabre way "Four little indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three-he-he-he~..."

Marisa has a hard time dodging the flares that expel from the miniature sun that threaten to burn her and her broom to a crisp.

Marisa scoffs, then says "I better end this quick! Magic Sign, Stardust Reverie!"

Marisa flies high to the ceiling and aims her broom at Patchouli, and instead of simply shooting her stars at the magician, she places her Hakkero at the brush-end of her broom and surrounds herself with a blue magical aura, then rushes like a shooting star straight at Patchouli, leaving a trail of stars behind her as she crashes against the magician, almost hitting her directly, yet making her spin in the air after capturing her spell card and cancelling the spell.

After this happens, Reimu hears the creepy voice of Flandre as she sings "Three little indian boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two~ah-ha-ha..."

Reimu looks up and shouts "what was that? Who's there?"

* * *

Marisa and Patchouli ignore Reimu's shouting and continue their battle.

Patchouli summons another spell card form her book, then says with a smile "you'll be sorry I had to use this! Five Elements Sign, Philosopher's Stone!"

Five stones, blue, red, yellow, purple and green, surround Patchouli, then she and all the stone immediately shoot an insane combination of elemental spell shards at Marisa, covering the entire area with tiny elemental shards of fire, water, metal, wood and earth.

Marisa smiles as she calmly sways around the many bullets, though getting grazed by many and losing a few parts of her black vest, then says "I'm sorry, but you'll have to do better next time. Ritual Sign Orrerie's Sun"

Four magical orbs appear circling around Marisa, red, green, yellow and blue, then Marisa lifts her arm up and points it Patchouli, and a shower of small stars fly straight to the librarian, each star consuming the elemental bullets with ease, and all Patchouli can do is watch in horror as the stars fly past her stones and straight to her.

There is a loud explosion and Patchouli's scream, then the thud from Patchouli's body hitting the floor.

After everything quiets down, Reimu and Marisa continue to fly ahead, Marisa smiling and saying "heh heh, I bet she'll be trying that again next week."

Reimu looks around with a very serious expression, trying to find that little girl again, then says "keep sharp. She's here!"

As they fly farther inside the hall, Marisa comments "I don't see anybody", but then they both hear Flandre singing "Two Little indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one..."

Marisa shivers for a moment and asks "who was that?", then she and Reimu watch through the windows in the area, as the last bit of sun disappears from sight.

The second the sun is gone, Flandre asks "did you call for me?"

Marisa sweats and says "no I didn't."

Flandre reveals herself to the two girls, then says "here I am!"

Marisa stares at Flandre, relaxes, then asks "and you are...?"

Flandre says "before you ask a person's name..."

Marisa quickly replies "Oh me? I'm Reimu Hakurei. The Shrine Maiden."

Flandre bows her head and says "I am Flandre. A pleasure to meet you, miss Marisa Kirisame. You know, shrine maiden doesn't really suit you."

Marisa lowers her head and thinks "maybe I should have said nurse" while Reimu laughs out loud.

Flandre looks at Reimu and says "ah, miss Reimu... so you're the one that quarreled with my sister!"

Reimu stares at Flandre for a moment and says "you weren't here last time, were you?"

Flandre bends her body a little while leaving her hands behind her back, then smiles and says "oh, I was here. You just couldn't see me. You see, I was in the basement."

Marisa asks "you were?"

Flandre giggles and says "yup! I've been living down there for about 495 years. Now let me guess... you two are humans? I've only seen humans as drinks, you know."

Reimu smiles sheepishly and says "yes, we are human, but... we are more complicated than tea."

Reimu looks at Marisa, then says "most of us, anyway."

Flandre giggles as Marisa growls at Reimu, then flaps her colorful wings and says "Hey, miss Reimu, I want to come to your shrine with my sister."

Reimu immediately replies "please don't! Look, why don't you just go back to your room like a good little girl and-?"

Flandre cuts Reimu off and says in a sinister tone "I've always wanted to see humans."

Marisa smiles and says "well aren't you in luck? Here we are, so take a good look."

Flandre doesn't reply, worrying Reimu, who says "well, now that you've seen us, please go to your room."

Flandre's voice turns even more sinister and crazed as she smiles and says "I want to play with you."

Reimu and Marisa sweat as they look at each other, then Reimu, though feeling very nervous, calmly asks "and what would you like to play?"

Flandre replies "danmaku!"

Reimu smiles and says "oh, pretty patterns."

Marisa adds "we're good with those."

Flandre's eyes glow blood red as she smiles and says "alright then, let's play!", summoning the twisted black rock with heart shapes at the tips.

Reimu looks at Marisa and notices she is also a little nervous, then says "you take the left, I'll take the right. If she wants to play, let's give her a good game!"

Marisa nods as she calms down, then says "alright. Let's play some danmaku with this little monster, then."

Flandre giggles and immediately releases red shards in circle patterns, and the game begins.

* * *

Marisa and Reimu find themselves taking baby steps in the air to avoid Flandre's powerful barrage of danmaku shards that destroy the windows, the ornaments and even burn the carpet.

Marisa smiles and says "hey, you're pretty good. Now look at mine!"

Marisa fires a barrage of green sparks that explode on Flandre's face, making Flandre stop shooting.

Marisa smirks, thinking it's going to be an easy victory, then gasps when she sees Flandre blinking and looking curiously around, trying to figure out what happened to the sparks.

Fear takes Marisa as Flandre casually asks "they exploded. Can you send more? I want to take a closer look."

Before the frightened witch answers, Reimu smiles and says "no, I think it's best if we just move along."

Flandre giggles and pulls a spell card form under her hat and sinisterly says "ok! Here I come! Taboo, Cranberry Trap!"

As the spell card activates, Reimu hurriedly says "Marisa, move!"

Marisa looks around and says "what, didn't we say- WHOA!"

Marisa immediately moves to the center when the sees a ghostly magical circle move quickly toward her, shooting blue orbs that quickly make their way to the center, along with some lilac orbs form Reimu's side, all constricting in the center.

Reimu and Marisa manage to fly through the small gaps of the bullets, but the attack intensifies and one of the orbs burns Reimu's knee as it grazes it.

Marisa gets annoyed, pulls her Hakkero, then smiles confidently and whispers to it "I love you, and I love your games."

The Hakkero starts to shake a little, then Marisa aims it at Flandre and shouts "Love Colored, Master Spark"

Reimu shouts at Marisa to stop, but the massive beam is already flying toward Flandre, consuming the bullets and the little vampire in its massive multi-colored light.

Flandre's spell continues, surprising Marisa, who asks "what just happened?"

Reimu points at Flandre, who has taken the form of a bat, then quickly turns back to human, giggles, and says "nice try, but I won't let you hit me so easily."

One of the orbs grazes Reimu's waist, and although it doesn't even come close, it burns through her clothes and down to her skin.

Reimu gasps but steels herself so she doesn't flinch, then pulls needles from both of her skirt's pocket, and throws them around Flandre.

The little vampire stops smiling and her spell ends, just as one of the orbs is about to hit Marisa's back without her knowing.

Flandre suddenly screams "ow, ow, ow~, ouch! Hey, that hurts!"

Reimu angrily says "ok, you've played enough, now go back to your room!"

Flandre smiles wickedly and narrows her eyes as she shakes the needles of her hands and arms, then says "oh, but didn't I tell you? The game only ends when you BREAK!"

Flandre giggles and progresses to laugh manically, sending chills down Reimu's and Marisa's spines as she prepares her next spell card.

With a very sinister whisper, Flandre says "I want to see all of you. I want to see what's inside of you. When I break you, I will see! I will see it all!"

Worried, Marisa says "Reimu, this girl is creeping me out."

Reimu sighs to calm herself down, then says "you're not alone."

* * *

Flandre's smile widens when she hears the rapid beating hearts of the two humans in front of her, so she raises her spell card and excitedly shouts "Taboo, Lavatein!"

Both Reimu and Marisa flinch at the sound of the name, both knowing full well the legend of that sword.

The tip on Flandre's black rod is surrounded by a red spark, then the red spark expands to create a massive scarlet sword, which Flandre swings without hesitation.

Reimu and Marisa scream as they split up and fly away from that dangerous attack, while Flandre laughs as though she's having the time of her life.

The sword cuts and breaks through the inner walls and floors with ease, but something cuts it off when it touches the wall to the outside or ceiling.

As they dodge Flandre's quick attacks, Reimu asks "how come... it won't break... to the outside."

Marisa quickly replies "Patchouli's... protections!"

Marisa barely dodges Flandre's next sword swing, yelping when she feels something touch her head.

After the attack, she checks herself and feels her hat is singed; rage quickly fills her face as she raises her head to stare angrily at Flandre.

The blonde vampire lowers her weapon and looks at Marisa curiously, then asks "why are you looking at me like that?"

Blinded by rage, Marisa flies at the same height as Flandre and summons to her two magical orbs.

Flandre smiles, thinking it's all a game, not realizing Marisa is truly angry, then swings her sword form left to right, happily shouting "YEAH! You wanna play with me!"

Marisa growls and grumbles "oh yeah, we're gonna play alright!"

Marisa nimbly dodges Flandre's sword swings, and from her orbs, two thin laser beams shoot straight at Flandre, while Marisa lifts her left hand and cups it, then starts shooting many large green sparks from it.

The beams go straight, so they fly right past Flandre, but Marisa focuses on hr magic orbs and places them in front of herself, and just as Flandre attempts a downward slash, she is met by two hot and thin laser beams on the face, as well as powerful exploding green sparks to the abdomen.

Flandre screams with pain an surprise, then cries "wait, wait! A-ha-how~! That hurts!"

Flandre's spell is cancelled, but Marisa continues to attack, so Reimu jumps on her and shouts "Marisa, it's ok, you beat her!"

Marisa comes back to her senses and stops her attack, then looks at Reimu and asks "huh? Did she give up?"

Flandre curls herself into a ball in the air, as she sobs and cries "that... that hurt. I don't like it. Make it stop."

Reimu and Marisa watch curiously, wondering what is wrong with her, and without warning, Flandre uncurls with a crazed smile on her face and fires a fast and intense barrage of red shards all around her, already holding her next spell card and shouting "Taboo! Four of a Kind!"

Flandre's body splits to four, then Reimu gasps and says "so THAT'S what was hiding behind the mirror!"

All four Flandres smile sinisterly and say "yes, miss Reimu. And Miss Marisa, that hurt, so I'm gonna make you hurt even more!"

Marisa can only say "oh shit, this isn't-", before all four Flandres shoot at the girls with all they've got with scarlet shard bullets.

Amongst the explosions and Marisa screams as she flies through the tiny gaps between bullets, then Reimu shouts "Marisa, keep her on you!"

Marisa shouts back "WHICH ONE?"

Reimu takes the right side of the hallway, while Marisa takes the left and shouts "hey, are you guys blind? My master has better aim, and she's a spirit!"

The real Flandre laughs and asks "oh, so you want me to aim at you?"

After saying that, while the other three Flandres shoot the small, but powerful scarlet shards, the real Flandre shoots large blue orbs around herself, aiming most at Marisa, missing her and destroying the rest of the carpet and the floors while one of the copies suddenly shoots large green orbs, then another shoots slow but powerful yellow.

Reimu smiles when she spots the real Flandre, then fires her blue amulets from her yin-yang orbs, as well throw some red talismans from her hands, and before the real Flandre knows what happened, two of her clones yelp and vanish, lowering the intensity of the spell and leaving her open to take Reimu's talismans head-on.

As soon as the talismans cling on to her skin, they paralyze her, but keep her floating. Reimu takes the chance, flies to Flandre and smacks her on the back of her hand with her gohei, then captures Flandre's spell card and completely ends the attack.

Marisa takes a few breaths of relief, then says "thanks. I thought she had me there, ze."

Reimu winks and smiles, then says "it's not over yet."

The talismans burn off Flandre's skin, allowing her to move and giggle again.

Seemingly happy, Flandre smiles and says "more, more! I want to play more!"

Without rest, she starts shooting quick blue shards that zip by so fast, both Reimu and Marisa find themselves flying all around to avoid being hit.

Flandre giggles loudly and says "come on, let's make it more fun!", then intensifies her attack, grazing both Reimu and Marisa with those shards, breaking off pieces of their vests and skirts as they quickly move around and avoid the bullets.

Reimu grunts, then says "enough! Marisa, use the laser again!"

Flandre suddenly gasps and flinches, then curls to a ball in the air, covering her face as best as she can.

When nothing happens, she sees the smiling faces of Reimu and Marisa staring back at her, so she laughs lightly and says "you... heh heh, you tricked me, red and white. Alright then..."

Flandre's voice turns sinister once more as she says "since you like surprises, let me give you one."

She pulls a spell card from her right pocked, then shouts "Taboo, Kagome, Kagome!"

* * *

Marisa and Reimu move to the center in front of Flandre when they notice the green beams forming a large cage around them.

When the beams settle, they turn into green orbs, and seeing this, Flandre sounds disappointed when she asks "aww, what gives? They turned to orbs? Oh well, no matter."

Marisa looks up to Flandre and watches her prepare a dense yellow orb on her right hand and says "heads up!", just as Flandre releases the dense yellow orb from her hands and throws it between the smaller green orbs, breaking the cage and sending the pieces straight at the girls.

Before they can move, another set of green beams creates another cage, trapping them once more, then this time Flandre fires two dense yellow orbs that fall through the newly formed green orbs and break them apart, then the process repeats again, and each time Flandre shoots more yellow orbs.

Reimu cautiously grazes through the bullets, taking care not to come across any of the orbs, keeping her concentration on the attack, until she hears Marisa's scream.

Marisa got herself cornered and takes three green orbs to the chest, losing a large chunk of her black vest and the lower part of her white undershirt.

The impact knocks her breath right out of her body and causes her to lose balance and almost fall off her broom.

Reimu shouts "Marisa, focus!", helping Marisa steel herself and regain her balance, and prevents herself from falling off.

Another cage forms and five more yellow orbs break the green net apart while Flandre giggles and says "yay, I get to see the inside of you! Huh? Hey wait, you're not broken!"

Marisa catches her breath and smiles, then says "I won't break, little girl."

Marisa holds on to her broom, then brazenly flies through the many flying orbs and goes straight for Flandre.

Right when she's in front of the little vampire, she smiles and reveals her own spell card, then says "surprise... Ritualic Space, Orrerie's Solar System!"

Six orbs, red, blue, yellow, orange, green and purple, surround Marisa for a moment, then Marisa sends them straight at Flandre, who is too impressed to realize she is being attacked, and gets hit by the spell on the face, screaming every time an orb touches and explodes on her head.

Marisa flies away, knowing the little vampire is going to be furious, but she and Reimu are surprised when the little vampire starts to laugh.

Marisa flies next to Reimu and asks "is she happy?"

Reimu shrugs, unable to answer her, then Flandre happily says "WOW, you're very good! Let's see how you handle THIS! Taboo, Maze of Love!"

Both Marisa and Reimu exclaim "WHOA!", when they see the immense and intense barrage of blue orbs and the wall of shards that heads their way, just after Flandre flies back up.

Reimu sits on Marisa's broom, then excitedly says "MOVE!", then Marisa quickly heads to the large gap between the wall of shards, while avoiding the orbs that make their way through the walls.

Reimu exclaims "she's making a maze! Try to find her and I'll take care of it!"

Marisa nods and smirks, then says "you know, I'm starting to like this game."

Reimu grunts, but sighs and prepares a spell card.

The hallway is now a derelict mess; the ornaments are nothing but ashes, the tables are mere lumber, the carpet and floor are gone, and the walls and ornamental pillars are destroyed beyond recognition, and this new attack is making things even worse.

Reimu exclaims "hurry up!", while Marisa maneuvers through the insane curtain of bullets and shouts "hey, this isn't easy!"

Reimu pokes Marisa's shoulder and points at the center of the attack, then exclaims "there she is! After the next wall, get away!"

Marisa nods and looks around for the next gap, but realizes the bullets suddenly changed to brown, and the gap is on the other side of where she thought it would be.

Reimu exclaims "she changed directions!"

Marisa takes a sudden sharp turn, getting grazed by the now red orbs on her shoulder, then sarcastically exclaims "really, I didn't notice!"

Marisa manages to reach the next opening, but as soon as she's close again, a barrage of red orbs fly straight to her, so she takes a dive.

Reimu takes this as an advantage and lets herself fall off the broom and lands below Flandre, switches the spell card for another from her pocket, then shouts "Divine Arts, Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle!"

The familiar golden pillar rises from below Flandre and burns her skin as it glows brightly.

Flandre screams as the white hot flames punish her without signs of stopping, then it stops just as quickly as it started.

Marisa rushes to Reimu, to make sure she's alright, but before either can speak, Flandre starts to laugh manically.

Her red vest is in tatters, with its right side almost completely missing, revealing her pink undershirt, yet she just laughs.

She suddenly stops laughing, then rushes straight at Reimu and Marisa with a maddened look on her face, saying "you have to break... You have to BREAK! If you don't break, we must play more! I like that! I like that so much! Don't break yet!"

Marisa grabs Reimu and speeds away on her broom, leaving Flandre to crash on the floor and leave a large crater that goes all the way to the ground below the Mansion.

Flandre looks up with that crazed smile, and as she gets up on her feet, she giggle and says "we play more!"

* * *

As Flandre flies back up, her voice sounds sinister as she says "I don't get it, you should be broken! Why won't you break? You-you have to break, heheh, you HAVE to break! Why won't you break?"

Marisa and Reimu watch as she starts to shiver, then Reimu gasps and says "Marisa, don't let her spells touch you!"

Flandre giggles and sinisterly says "alright then, that means I get to play with you even harder! Yes! I get to play to the fullest with the humans!"

Marisa sweats and asks "er, Reimu? Shouldn't we run?"

Reimu whispers "too late, Marisa."

Flandre pulls a spell card form under her hat, then shouts "Forbidden Barrage, Starbow Break!"

A sudden barrage of multi-colored orbs appears from right to left, following Flandre's hand and insane smile, then they all fly straight at Marisa and Reimu in a completely random pattern.

Reimu and Marisa manage to dodge through the attack and flinch at the sound of the loud explosions behind them.

Marisa gasps at the sight of the completely destroyed outer wall, then says "Reimu! She broke it!"

Reimu shouts "watch out!", then she and Marisa find themselves dodging through another barrage of random colorful orbs.

Reimu looks at Flandre, then back at the destroyed wall, then says "Marisa, whatever happens, she must not get out! Do whatever it takes, she must not get out!"

Marisa is about to complain, but she quickly notices the urgency in Reimu's eyes, so she nods, then says "she will not get out, Reimu. But what should we do?"

Before Reimu can answer, she and Marisa find themselves taking evasive maneuvers between barrages and barrages of randomly flying multi-colored orbs before there is a moment of pause.

Reimu flies all the way to the right side of the hallway, while Marisa is on the left again.

They look at each other, then Marisa shouts "Reimu, use Treasure Sign!"

Reimu smirks and says "I'm game."

Marisa flies up to the ceiling, while Reimu takes the offensive and moves between the narrow gaps of the next bullet barrage to get closer to Flandre, throwing her talismans and amulets with such skill, when Flandre moves away to avoid them, the talismans stick to the walls as though they were blades.

Reimu is in range, and without wasting any time, she shouts "Treasure Sign, Yin-Yang Orb"

One of her yin-yang orbs absorbs her spell card, grows in size, and turns golden, and using that orb, Reimu neutralizes the next barrage of bullets and tries to hit Flandre, but the clever little vampire turns into a bat and manages to flutter away.

Reimu's spell times out and she finds herself trapped between Flandre and her danmaku, and with a wicked and twisted smile on her face, Flandre gets closer to Reimu, reaching out with her left hand, saying "yay, I get to see inside".

From the ceiling, Marisa shouts "Comet, Blazing Star!"

Marisa flies as fast as a comet and tackles the distracted vampire to the ground, saving Reimu and cancelling the barrage of bullets.

Flandre falls to the floor on her back, and everything seems to settled down.

Thinking she has attained victory, Marisa raises her right fist and shouts "Yeah! Score a huge win for me!"

Reimu stares sternly at Flandre, then says "it's not over yet."

Marisa looks at Reimu with surprise, then a hammering sound catches her attention.

When she turns around, she sees Meiling, Patchouli and a large group of fairies hammering away and working as fast as they can to close the large hole on the wall, all of them with tears on their clothes and some dried bloodstains.

Meiling notices Marisa is watching, so she smiles and waves her bandaged left arm, saying "don't worry, we got this covered. Good luck with the little sister."

Smiling sheepishly as a sweat drop falls behind her hat, Marisa turns to Reimu and says "well, it looks like we're doing this for free after all... huh?"

When she looks at Reimu's face, she notices a pained look as she stares at Flandre, who is back in the air with a wide and twisted smirk, expanding her arms as she giggles, though evident in her widened and crazed eyes is her pain.

Reimu raises her left hand to Flandre, silently asking the vampire to wait, then asks "what is it, little one? Why are you so intent on 'breaking' us? Don't you see, if we break, we die, and if we die, we can't play with you, ever again."

Flandre holds her head and grunts, then shakes around as though trying to fight with herself, then raises her crazed face again, this time tears with flowing from her eyes, and they don't seem to stop.

Flandre giggles again, sniffles, then says "everything breaks around me... everything I've ever known breaks when I play! Everyone I love dies! Mother, father, Inu..."

Flandre stops speaking and starts giggling again, her tears continue to flow though she smiles and starts to laugh, then suddenly shouts "no! I don't remember! He broke, but he's fixed! Sakuya fixed it, just like my dolls and my toys! She fixes everything!"

Reimu and Marisa can't help but feel devastated by the sight and by what they have just heard.

Flandre speaks through her teeth as she says "everything breaks, everyone dies! If I want to play, I have to know this, or it hurts. Yes, it's normal! Everything breaks!"

Disheartened, Reimu gulps and asks "Marisa?"

Marisa turns her frightened and saddened face at Reimu and then both ask at the same time "are you ok with this?"

Reimu sighs and says "we have to stop her at least. Maybe if we tire her out."

Marisa hides her eyes under her hat's brim, then says "agreed. Reimu, let's play with her."

Reimu nods, then says "we agree then. Let's give her a good game and show her the truth."

Marisa and Reimu smile, as new resolve fills them, and rush to face the laughing vampire again, now aware and knowledgeable of what they are truly up against.

* * *

To be concluded...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

EoSD game dialogue by ZUN (credit to the translators as well.)

AUG 12 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**Well, I decided to split this into two chapter after all. Flandre has too many spell cards to begin with, plus there's three more from Patchy, and then there's the time before they met with Flandre, when Reimu was searching for her, which I wanted to make mysterious and scary. Originally, I was going to rush through most of the spell cards and end this quick, but that would RUIN this whole fiction, so I decided to just take it easy and add a few extra details here and there, add more details to Patchouli vs. Marisa (part 2), and end the story on the next chapter. I think I made the right decision there, seeing as I also want both Reimu and Marisa (though canonically, it's mostly Reimu) to know more of Flandre and the madness that's keeping herself from self-destruction. Anyway, thank you for reading, and if you want to wait until next chapter to leave a comment/review, it's alright, though note comments/reviews are very much appreciated. Again, thank you for reading, and see you next chapter.**

**On another note, I found that "little indian" song lyrics somewhere on the net, so I don't know where do credits go for that song, as well that I am not 100% sure if those are the correct lyric. Regardless, I'm using it due to the fact of the dialogue after beating Flandre with Marisa.  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:**

**This chapter doesn't contain much blood, so do enjoy. Also note that although I am trying my best to follow ZUN's story for the SDM, he is vague with details, and thus, I'm filling the vague gaps with what I believe happened. Also note that as stated on the first chapter, this fiction's only link to my Sukima series are at the very beginning and very end. They link to Chapter 8 Paradise Sukima, but that's about it. Reviews and comments are appreciated and thank you for reading. Do enjoy.

* * *

**

Night at the Hakurei Shrine, where Remilia and Sakuya patiently wait for Reimu's return.

Though Sakuya lies on her back while looking up at the ceiling and calmly saying "such a peaceful place", Remilia paces around the shrine and looks to the sky whenever she can, eager to see Reimu return with good news.

Sakuya suddenly feels the uneasiness her mistress is feeling, so she springs up and sits up straight, regaining her elegance in an instant.

Remilia continues staring to the sky and says "she's taking too long."

Sakuya calmly replies "my lady, give her some time. It's the young mistress after all. Still, for miss Flandre to ignore my orders, even though she's so afraid of me."

Remilia quickly turns her head to look at Sakuya with worry behind her stern eyes, feeling her stomach churn with worry for her sister, then says "she's going to get herself sealed."

Sakuya stares back at Remilia with confusion, then Remilia continues her pacing, looking at the floor as she says "that girl changed MY fate, Sakuya. It's supposed to be the other way around. Who is to say she won't change Flandre's fate too! She's going to seal my sister, and it's all because I'm-"

Sakuya grabs Remilia when she passes by and sits her on her lap, and although she expected her mistress to struggle, she is surprised when Remilia calms down and relaxes instead.

Sakuya takes the chance to embrace Remilia, then says "my lady, though I hate to admit it, I think we should trust miss Reimu. I believe everything will be alright, and when she comes back, she'll kick us out and send us back to miss Flandre."

Remilia slightly flaps her wings and bends her head back to look at Sakuya with confusion in her eyes, then says "Sakuya, if you're wrong, you owe me a four-layer cake, and I don't CARE if it's late!"

Sakuya chuckles and smiles, then says "alright. When miss Reimu returns, I'll bake a large cake for you and miss Flandre."

Remilia narrows her right eye and asks "are you making fun of me?"

Sakuya's face turns a little pink as she chuckles again and continues to smile, then says "never, my lady."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, inside the great hallway, Meiling and the fairy maids work hard and as fast as they can to cover the hole Flandre's bullets made on the wall, so they can prevent her possible escape.

Patchouli and Koakuma keep them safe, using all their concentration on creating a protective barrier that protects them all from Flandre's insane barrage.

Further ahead of them, Marisa and Reimu move with speed and precision as they avoid the insane barrage of blue shards being sent by Flandre, who continues to laugh and cry and repeat "play more! Let's play some more until you break."

She's moving so fast and so unevenly, Reimu's talismans and needles constantly crash with Marisa's sparks and laser beams, though the recoil caused by the explosion slows Flandre down a bit.

Reimu seems very focused, and remains eerily quiet as she attacks, while Marisa seems a little more lose and relaxed, even smiling after she is grazed on the face by the burning shards.

Flandre finally slows down enough for Reimu to surround and strike her with amulets and talismans that fly from her yin-yang orbs, paralyzing her momentarily.

Taking a well-earned moment of respite, Marisa smiles and says "oi, Reimu. This girl knows how to play, ze."

Reimu cracks as smile and chuckles, then says "yeah. She does. Best be ready, 'cuz here she comes again."

The talismans and Amulets slowly fall off Flandre's torso, who starts to giggle again as she slowly regains her mobility, and after the last amulet falls off, she flies high to the ceiling and wipes the dried tears from her cheeks.

She looks down to Marisa and Reimu with an innocent smile, then says "I've never met anyone that could play with me for so long without breaking apart. Let's play some more! Please, don't break too soon! I really want to play more!"

Reimu sweats as she sheepishly smiles and nervously says "don't worry little girl. Just go ahead and tire yourself out already."

Flandre gasps with a wide smile on her face and nods while saying "ok then!"

She pulls a spell card from under her hat and eagerly says "here, here, look at this one! Forbidden Barrage, Catadioptric!"

Flandre shoots powerful dense blue orbs followed by a massive barrage of smaller, yet still powerful blue orbs against the ceiling of the hall.

The orbs bounce off, breaking a bit of the roof after bouncing off, then head toward Marisa and Reimu.

Marisa is all the way to the right, and only needs to dodge the scattered orbs that head her way, while Reimu is on the left and has to dodge the main attack, the trailing orbs, and the scattered orbs left behind, though she's so focused, she makes dodging all that look easy.

Flandre laughs as she prepares the next wave and shoots six bullet barrages that bounce against the right wall and head toward Reimu to the left, leaving Marisa to deal with the scattered orbs again while Reimu deals with the main attack.

Flandre giggles as she says "red and white sis is good at this!", then shoots three more barrages straight at Reimu, making her dodge the attack twice after they bounce off the floor.

Marisa stares at Flandre for a moment, and noticing she's placed all her attention on Reimu, she thinks it's her chance, so she quietly pulls a spell card and softly says "Magic Sign, Stardust Reverie", then aims her right hand at Flandre, surrounds it in blue magic, then releases large multi-colored stars at the vampire.

Just before the stars hit, Flandre turns to a bat and avoids the attack while firing three set of orbs to the ceiling and two more to the walls to the left and right.

Marisa gasps, thinking she missed a good chance, and when Flandre turns her attention to the witch, Reimu shouts "Spirit Sign, Fantasy Orb!"

Flandre smiles wickedly at Marisa, and just before Reimu's colorful elemental orbs connect, she turns to a bat and manages to avoid Reimu's attack, which make the orbs follow after Marisa, who takes quick evasive action and flies all over the room, running away from Reimu's orbs and dodging Flandre's next wave of attack, which seems faster and more destructive after they break down an whole wall.

As she unleashes another wave of attack immediately after another, she smiles wickedly and says "nice try, but I'm not going to fall for-"

Flandre and her attacks stop, and when the little vampire looks behind herself, she finds she has four amulets stuck to her back, burning through her vest again, though slipping away before getting to her skin.

Flandre turns her surprised face back to Marisa and Reimu as the maiden regroups with her friend and calls off her spell, then smiles and says "that was sneaky... but I liked it! Come, we play more!"

Reimu and Marisa look at each other, then Marisa asks "how much longer do we go on?"

Reimu stares seriously at Flandre for a moment before replying "not long now. Just hold on a little longer."

* * *

Flandre starts to fly fast and erratically, making her an impossible target, then starts firing thin blue beams all around herself, except on front of herself.

She aims one hand at Marisa and the other at Reimu, then fires a thin blue beam straight at each of them, while the other beams turn to shards and rain down on the girls.

Reimu and Marisa fly forward with haste, trying to reach Flandre, but the little vampire continues to fly erratically, shooting her beams and shards, and flies backward to avoid getting too close to the girls.

She giggles and says "nah-ah~ You can't tag me this time~!"

Reimu grunts after getting grazed on the left shoulder, but ignores the pain and the blood, and continues chasing after Flandre.

Marisa shouts "how long is this darned hallway?"

Reimu keeps quiet and concentrated on chasing Flandre while avoiding her attack, then suddenly stops, so Marisa follows her example and stops too.

Flandre continues to fly backward, unaware of the wall behind her, then crashes through it as though she's just gone through paper.

Marisa and Reimu wince at the sight, but then gasp when Flandre peeks her head through the hall, asking "aww, why did you stop?"

Marisa shakes her head to shake off her shock, then smiles and says "you're pretty strong, little girl."

Flandre flies back to the grand hallway, frowns and sniffles, then giggles for a moment, then says "th-that's why... That's why everything breaks when I play."

Reimu smiles and says "well, we haven't broken, have we?"

Flandre looks at Reimu, then at Marisa, rubs her eyes, then smiles and says "y-yeah. You're right. You're still here! Th-that means we can play some more!"

Flandre notices Marisa is holding a hand watch by its chain and swings it left and right while raisin her hand toward Flandre.

The little blonde vampire stares at Marisa and the watch, then asks "what are you doing?"

Marisa asks "aren't you getting tired?"

Flandre giggles and says "no. Those tricks don't work on me anyway. But now you reminded me of my next spell! Here you go~"

Reimu glares at Marisa and grunts as she says "way to go."

Marisa sweats and shrugs, then says "it was an accident!"

Flandre pulls a spell card from under her hat again, then asks "c-can I ask you something?"

Reimu and Marisa look up at Flandre's worried and innocent face as she looks away, as though in shame, then Marisa says "go ahead."

Flandre twists her arms around her twisted black rod and asks "after you've broken, will you come play with me again?"

Reimu and Marisa sweat while smiling sheepishly, then Marisa whispers "gee, she didn't get it before."

Reimu simply smiles back at Flandre and says "w-well, we'll decide after we finish playing, ok?"

Flandre smirks and says "deal! Now, Forbidden Barrage, Counter Clock!"

Marisa and Reimu yelp when they are suddenly forced to move along two large beams made into crosses; one moves clockwise and the other counterclockwise, and while they move along with the clockwise beam, Marisa says "well, this isn't so bad."

Flandre giggles, flies to the ceiling, then says "that's because I haven't done THIS!"

Flandre joins her arms and cups her hands and fingers, then fires a rain of red bullets on Marisa and Reimu, and although they fall in straight lines, Flandre wills the orbs to sway a bit.

Reimu and Marisa are overwhelmed, but they continue to fly through the small gaps while taking care the moving beams don't touch them.

The beams disappears and reappear again in a different position, then move around the area while spinning slowly and Flandre continues her bullet shower, stopping only for very brief moments.

At first, Marisa has some trouble, but after the third reappearance of the beams, she dodges nimbly through the bullets while almost dancing with the beams in the air.

Reimu dances around the air since the spell starts, even allowing the beams to get close to her while she sways around the bullets.

Marisa is suddenly grazed by a bullet on the neck and loses her concentration after flinching, then screams out loud when the moving beam cuts through her shoe and burns her bare skin.

Reimu gasps and shouts "Marisa, stay focu- ARGH!"

After getting distracted, Reimu is struck by the new beam on the back, burning her vest and shirt away and touching her skin, but manages to move away before it cuts her in half, though gets struck on her right elbow by one of the orbs.

Flandre begins to giggle again, her face twisting as she watches the girls get hit by her attack, then thinks "they'll break soon, just like the rest, Flandre. I can see it. They are afraid of me, just like onee-chan. No matter, no matter. Let's just continue the game and look inside of them when they break... just like... N-no... I didn't mean to!"

Flandre suddenly starts to laugh as tears fall from her eyes to the floor below, though because the beams and bullets, what's left of the floor and walls are just pieces of lumber, broken parts of what used to be columns, and the ground beneath the mansion exposed.

Reimu notice's Flandre's state and takes advantage of her distraction, then pulls a spell card from her pocket and shouts "Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!"

Ten elemental orbs of fire, water, wind, lightning and earth surround Reimu, cutting through Flandre's bullets and cleaning a good chunk of air space for her and Marisa to be safe in, then the orbs fly straight to the distracted vampire.

When Flandre notices Reimu's attack, it's already too late, and the elemental orbs striker her hard, making her scream out in pain as they burn her skin, though don't kill her.

Flandre's spell is cancelled, but Reimu's attack continues for a bit longer, making Flandre scream out "I'm breaking~!", then stops, allowing Flandre to fall to the ground and recover from the pain.

Marisa approaches Reimu and asks "you ok? You took a beating there."

Reimu rubs her back and says "I'm fine, but that hurt though. What about you?"

Marisa looks at her foot, then says "it'll heal."

* * *

While Reimu and Marisa check up on each other, Flandre shivers on the ground as she struggles to get back up, pushing herself up with her arms, crying as her skin feels as though it's been burned by acid.

Her hat has a hole on it that's letting her hair escape through, her vest is singed and the right half of it is missing, the strap of her pink undershirt is broken, and her little skirt is in complete tatters.

She then remembers Remilia's straight face and her sister's voice telling her "Flan, you are a Scarlet. Be strong, but remember that you are also a lady, so you need to be more delicate. Now stand up... and stop crying!"

Flandre gulps and nods, then says "onee-chan is right. I must not cry... It's all part of the game, right?"

At present, Flandre rises to the air with a playful smile, so silent, Reimu and Marisa don't notice her until after she giggles and shoots blue beams and shards at them as fast as she can, while moving erratically around.

Marisa and Reimu shriek when they notice the beams and shards and immediately split up to dodge through the relentless attack.

Reimu fires her needles, amulets and talismans, but misses every single shot, yet continues to attack.

Flandre laughs and says in sing-song "you can't hit me~"

Marisa focuses her magical orbs in front of herself, but doesn't shoot and simply continues to dodge as best as she can.

Reimu looks calm and collected as she sways through the bullets and shoots her talismans, saying "you're enjoying yourself too much, little girl."

Flandre giggles and replies "just like onee-chan used to say to me!", then proceeds to attack Reimu a little more aggressively than Marisa.

The black and white witch takes advantage of Flandre's distraction and fires a focused laser beam that turns thicker the closer the pushes her orbs together, and strikes Flandre's abdomen with it, tearing off the lower part of her vest and singing a bit of her pink undershirt.

Flandre screams and scrunches, getting hit on her thigh, just as the beam stops, then Reimu looks at Marisa and flips her thumb up, quietly acknowledging the help.

Flandre opens her left eye to make sure the attack stopped, then flies higher to the ceiling and pulls a spell card from her pocket, then looks seriously at the two humans.

Marisa asks "what? Are you done?"

Flandre takes the spell card with her right hand and stares at it as she says "well, this is it. You will break when I use this spell. Please, come back and play when you get fixed, alright?"

Before Reimu or Marisa can reply, Flandre shouts "Secret Barrage, And Then There Will Be None?"

* * *

Reimu and Marisa watch as Flandre get surrounded by a blue orb, then disappears into the orb and moves around while releasing two slow sets of blue orb strings all over.

Though it's slow, it's very powerful, it's power demonstrated when one of the orbs touches the ceiling, explodes loudly, and leaves a large hole.

Reimu and Marisa gasp as they look at each other, then Reimu sits on Marisa's broom, then they begin to dodge the bullets.

Just as another blue orb appears and starts shooting bullets, Flandre thinks "this is that same spell. I really liked her, and she liked me a lot too. She loved playing with me... but..."

Marisa and Reimu get cornered and fear they are about to die, but a small gap appears right between the string of bullets, so they take their chance and fly through it, letting the orbs explode on the wall instead, the wall turning to dust in an instant.

Two more blue orbs appear and start shooting more blue orbs strings, and following after Reimu and Marisa.

While this happens, Flandre thinks "she was strong... though not as strong as Meiling. Still, while she was there, guarding the whole mansion by herself, I always felt so safe. And every time she came to play with me after her shift, it always made me so happy."

Reimu and Marisa manage to fly under three of the tracking orbs and let them strike the wall to the clock tower, completely eliminating the wall separating it from the grand hallway.

The blue orbs all vanish, and after Marisa asks "is it over?", all around them, red orbs form and threaten to constrict them.

Reimu and Marisa shriek and split up, then Reimu shouts "keep focused and watch your back!"

Marisa shouts back "I got it, I got it! Concentrate on yourself!"

The red orbs constrict in the center of the attack and spread about, destroying the remaining walls and leaving that entire area exposed to the outside, so Reimu takes the moment of respite, grabs a purple charm with green letters from one of her pockets, quickly prays in an ancient tongue, then releases the charm to the air.

From it, large blue beams forms a rectangle that expands and covers all around the battle area, creating a powerful holy barrier that prevents escape and further damage to the mansion.

Marisa growls and asks "why didn't you use that before?"

Reimu replies "later! Just dodge those!"

Blue orbs form up and threaten to trap the girls as they move in a straight line and seem to turn to a net as they get closer to the center, but Reimu and Marisa manage to dodge these with ease and soon find themselves dodging a set of yellow orbs that, like the red ones, threaten to constrict them.

As they dodge these, the blue orbs explode on Reimu's barrier, but it holds, and as this happens, Flandre thinks "she knew so much and taught me and onee-chan so many things. Ah, but Meiling looks better in that outfit... heh-heh."

Green orbs form up next and they move like the blue ones, though faster, forming a dangerous net as they close up in the center, and before these orbs are gone, more red orbs form up.

Marisa shouts "it's getting faster!"

Reimu shouts back "I know, just move!"

Just as the green orbs impact Reimu's barrier and the red orbs constrict in the center, the blue orbs appear again, making Reimu and Marisa shriek again.

As they continue to dodge, Flandre thinks "she came to my room in the basement... and made it so lively. I've always been down there, though... thanks to her, I was able to come out whenever I wanted to. Too bad mom and dad didn't get the chance to see."

By now, Reimu and Marisa are overwhelmed as each barrage starts long before the other is halfway through, and added to the explosions on the divine walls, the girls find themselves dodging in a very tiny space.

As they dodge this barrage, Flandre thinks "and then it happened. One day I used this very same spell by accident... and she broke... She called for me, she called of onee-chan... and then she broke. I called out for her, but she didn't respond! Onee-chan came. She was scare of me now, I could see it in her eyes. I cried... I am sorry for what I did, but after she broke she never came back. But Sakuya fixed all my broken dolls, so I don't get it. Why didn't they fix her? What happened?"

By now, Reimu and Marisa, though focused on carefully dodging through the immense barrage of colorful bullets, feel tired and worried they might get hit, then the attack stops, the spell card times out and Flandre reappears right in front of them with a longing face.

She looks at the girls and says "you... you didn't break."

Reimu and Marisa land on the ground and hold themselves with her hands on their knees, then Reimu replies excited and out of breath "I... told you! We won't break!"

Flandre smiles at them, this time looking more natural and tender, then says "but... every time I used this spell, they all broke. Why didn't you break? This... is... incredible."

Flandre starts to laugh, and although exhausted, a spell card materializes right in front of her face, glowing light blue.

Reimu glares at Flandre and says "Marisa, we got her on the ropes. We just need to survive this and it's over!"

Marisa tips her hat and stares bravely at Flandre, then nods and says "aye. After this, I'm going home and taking a nice long bath."

Reimu chuckles and says "I think I'll have tea and cookies while I take mine."

Marisa smiles at Reimu and says "showoff."

* * *

Flandre grabs hold of her newly created spell card and continues to smile naturally as she looks at Marisa and Reimu, then says "thanks for playing with me. Now I just have to win and it'll be a perfect day. I win, and you'll stay with me forever."

Reimu smirks and says "you have to beat us first if you want to win."

Marisa chuckles and adds "not that we'll make it easy, ze."

Flandre smirks with excitement in her eyes, then excitedly shouts "Q.E.D. Ripples of 495 Years!"

The area turns darker as Flandre summons great power to her, then circular bands of energy form around Flandre, turning to shards after spreading around.

Marisa and Reimu dodge this first barrage with ease, but the next barrage comes from five bands.

As this happens, Flandre thinks "all those years stuck in that room... it's NOT fair! I mean... I-it's not like it's onee-chan's fault, but I wanna play sometimes!"

The bands intensify in power, size and numbers, and the gaps between shards become thinner, giving Reimu and Marisa a harder time as they squeeze through.

Flandre laughs as she thinks "so dark, so quiet... it's terrible! I should lock onee-chan in a dark room like that too! But... it's not her fault. I mean, I do tend to break things and people."

The bands become more numerous and spread around faster, and the gaps between the bullets is so narrow, Reimu and Marisa can't help but get grazed.

Both girls are amazed that the bullets, though intense in power, only vanish when they touch Reimu's barrier.

Reimu shouts "Marisa, get ready! Use everything you have and more if you can!"

Marisa pulls her Hakkero from under her hat and smirks, then says "after you, miss maiden."

While the girls plot, Flandre thinks "I've done so many terrible things, I deserve to be in that room, but... They were all accidents, I swear! But... I did like breaking some."

Flandre remembers Remilia looking at her with a stern face, yet she can see the fear in her sister's eyes as she says "Flan, you need to learn control! If you can't learn how to control those powers of yours I can't let you out of your room. I'm not doing this because I like it Flan, I'm doing this to protect our servants. You don't want to break them, do you?"

The present Flandre shakes her head and shouts "no! I don't wanna break them!", and the bands become more intense. Reimu shouts "Marisa, now or never!"

Marisa flies straight to Flandre and aims her Hakkero, saying "I'm just building up some lovely drama, my dear friend."

The Hakkero starts to shake after Marisa speaks, but Flandre can't notice this.

The little vampire is caught inside her own mind as she thinks "I was let outside more and more, and the more I learned to control myself, the more I could go out. I even got a pet for being such a good girl... but... then they came. They came and broke everything! I... I had to break them too! I broke them, and I broke my pet, and..."

Flandre starts to cry, causing Marisa to hesitate, but Reimu edges Marisa on, shouting "DO IT, YOU IDIOT!"

Marisa snaps out the shock, then shouts "Magicannon, Final Spark!"

Though Flandre turns to a bat and avoids the attack, Marisa's beam breaks Flandre's attack with ease.

As she flies to avoid the powerful beam, she thinks "but then, after all that, these two came. They won't break, and they have been playing with me for so long! Are they really human?"

Reimu takes advantage and hides under Marisa's beam, then, after it stops, she flies behind Flandre as she turns back to human.

Marisa stares at Flandre with fright, knowing it's all over as more bands appear next to her, above and below her, plus Flandre so close to her.

As the little vampire reaches for Marisa, she thinks "I almost got this one. Will she break? Do I really want her to break? No... I want her to stay with me, so we can play all the time! I want them both to stay with me! I have to win!"

The bands stop moving and disappear, Flandre opens her eyes wide with surprise, then floats slowly back to the ground, revealing Reimu behind her with her gohei on her right hand and smiling at Marisa.

The witch takes a very deep breath of air and sighs, then says "I swear, I thought I was done for!"

Reimu giggles and says "and we won."

* * *

Marisa and Reimu float down to meet with Flandre, and as they do so, Marisa asks "so~, are we done?"

Flandre manages to spring on to her knees and cries "no way, I can't believe it! I lost!"

Reimu winks and waves her finger at Flandre, then says with a smile "see, this is the power of those who believe in gods."

Flandre growls and says "don't think we're done. Take THIS!"

Flandre lifts her left arm and points it at the girl, but nothing happens.

Flandre sobs and says "aww, I'm so exhausted I can't even shoot smoke!"

Reimu smiles and asks "so, are you satisfied?"

Flandre smiles, though showing a bit of disappointment in her eyes, then says "yes, I'm satisfied, but I'm pretty much alone again."

Marisa smirks and says "oh, so are you going to hang yourself?"

Flandre looks at Marisa with curiosity and asks "what? Why?"

Marisa closes her eyes and sings "He went out and hanged himself... and then there were none."

Flandre stares at Marisa with curiosity and asks "you know it? Where did you hear that song?"

Marisa smiles and says "it's a famous rhyme."

Flandre scowls and says "I thought you were the last Indian."

Marisa blinks twice and says "that last spell card made you invisible."

Flandre suddenly sings "she died by the bullet, and then there were none."

Marisa smiles and says "mmm, sorry, but I'm really good at dodging."

Flandre shrugs and says "well that's fine. I can't die if I hang myself anyway."

Marisa replies "A hanged corpse is not a pleasant sight. Why don't you do like in the real song?"

Flandre stares at Marisa with curiosity as the witch sings "she got married, and then there were none."

Flandre asks "with who?"

Marisa replies "I'll introduce you to a certain shrine maiden."

Reimu smacks Marisa on the head and angrily says "don't teach her to be a pervert like you."

Flandre giggles, then looks at Reimu and asks "can I come visit you?"

Reimu smiles nervously as a drop of sweat falls down the back of her messed hair and says "please, don't come to the shrine. I'll come visit you instead, so you won't be so lonely, ok?"

Flandre nods and says "and I wanted to go visit and take some cake and tea as thanks."

Reimu continues to smile nervously as she says "don't bring your kind of food to a human's place. Now be a good girl, go home quietly and go to sleep."

Flandre giggles and says "but I am home."

Reimu pats Flandre's head and says "so you don't need to go home. Fitting for a bad girl... Now if you'll excuse me, there's another bad girl I left in the shrine and need to take care of."

Flandre smiles and asks "who do you mean?"

Reimu smirks and says "you and your sister."

Flandre looks away, as though understanding what Reimu just said.

Reimu raises her hand and the holy barrier she created disappears, allowing Meiling, Patchouli, Koakuma, and the fairy maids to rush in.

Meiling grabs the exhausted Flandre and bows at Reimu, saying "thanks for your help", then prepares to leave immediately, but before she does, Flandre says "wait."

Meiling and Reimu stare at her, then Flandre manages to drop her head to look at both Reimu and Marisa from Meiling's arms, then says "do you really promise to come see me?"

Reimu smiles naturally and nods, saying "whenever I come visit, I'll come and see you. That's a promise."

Marisa nervously looks around, trying to keep her eyes away from Flandre's, then says "er, maybe... if I remember. I mean, I'm such a busy girl and all."

Flandre sighs and smiles, then says "fine, I get it."

Meiling nods to Reimu, glances at Marisa, then makes her way back to the basement with Flandre, while the fairy maids and Patchouli begin the reconstruction of the destroyed hallway, and Reimu and Marisa fly away back to their homes.

After the long walk to the basement, Flandre falls asleep on Meiling's hand, so the gate guard quietly makes her way to Flandre's room and gently places Flandre on the bed, covering her with her blanket and brushing her forehead with her fingers.

Meiling smiles, then thinks "maybe I should come and visit her too", then takes off Flandre's broken hat and walks out of the room.

* * *

At the Hakurei Shrine, Remilia paces in and out of the shrine with her hands behind her back and flapping her wings occasionally.

Sakuya sits peacefully next to the table, nibbling down on the last cookie form the tray, then stops and says "my lady, here she comes."

Remilia expands her wings and smile wide as sparkles shine through her expectant eyes as she looks outside to the night sky toward the direction of her mansion.

Shortly after, she sees Reimu flying just above the trees and landing softly in front of the shrine's entrance, so she rushes to the maiden and excitedly asks "what happened?"

Reimu pats Remilia's head and in a kind, yet strict tone, she says "you should really pay more attention to your sister!"

Remilia gasps and starts to cry "no~ You had to seal her, didn't you?"

Reimu sighs and face palms, then says "relax, she's fine. She should be in her room again... though your mansion is a complete mess."

Remilia twitches, and her wings stand stiff after hearing that, but Reimu places her hands on the vampire's shoulder and looks at her with understanding helping her relax.

Remilia stares back at the maiden for a moment, then Reimu suddenly says "you have the right to be afraid of her, but she really needs you. We managed to open up a door for her, but she needs you now, Remilia. You need to get her back yourself. Nobody else can do that for you."

Remilia blushes with embarrassment after knowing Reimu figured out about her fear of her own sister.

She looks to the ground to her right, then nods and softly says "I'll give it another try."

Reimu shakes Remilia violently and bends down to look straight into her eyes, then says "listen to me, the door is open, but only you can get her out of there! Do you understand... Remilia?"

Sakuya stands next to Remilia, who stares straight into Reimu's eyes as though in a trance, but doesn't respond.

Reimu lets Remilia go, then says "well, you better get going now. The mess is incredible after all."

Sakuya places a hand on Remilia's right shoulder, then says "we appreciate everything you have done for us, miss Reimu."

Reimu just looks lazily at the two as they bow, then sighs and says "just make sure not to cause any more trouble."

* * *

Five days later, after the mansion is fully restored once again, Reimu comes and visits, wanting to read something in Patchouli's library as well, and keeping her promise, she goes and visits Flandre, who smiles innocently at the sight of the maiden, glad to receive a simple "hello, how are you?"

That same day, Meiling secretly visits Flandre, though this time, unlike the times before, she's visiting out of concern, rather than just curiosity.

On later days, during one of Marisa's visits, Flandre exits her room without Remilia's permission and hunts down the witch to simply scare her to death and give her a hug, then go back to her room with a satisfied smile.

Though grateful she's survived various encounters like that with Flandre, she's already admitted she rather not meet with the little sister.

Remilia has hesitantly and secretly been visiting her sister again, though as time passes, she been doing so more openly, even staging a dangerous incident with a meteor, so that Flandre could save the mansion.

After Reimu's interference, life at the mansion has gotten better and better as the years go by, and Reimu herself has kept her promise to Flandre, always visiting her whenever she visits the mansion, regardless of what she's doing, opening that door from the madness little by little, allowing Remilia to see more of her real sister with each visit.

* * *

AT PRESENT TIME

Remilia and Flandre sit side by side on the little sister's bed, the room a little more illuminated thanks to the extra set of recently lit lamps installed by Sakuya and Meiling.

Remilia smiles and says "yeah, so many things happened. At first, I thought living here in Gensokyo was a curse. But after so many things happened I came to realize the blessing of coming to this place."

Flandre giggles and says "to think you were scared of me, onee-sama... but I don't blame you. I did try to kill you back then."

Remilia sweats and says "er, just don't go crazy on me again, ok."

Flandre giggles and nods as she says "ok."

Remilia's smile suddenly turns to a frown as she looks to the floor and says "I don't want to lose you again, Flan. When you left me when you did, I thought I was going to destroy myself. Flandre, please, don't scare me like that again. Losing you for a second time might have brought me to madness."

Flandre's eyes hide under shadow as she nods, and after she looks down to the floor she asks "do you remember them? Mom and dad?"

Remilia sighs and honestly says "no... not anymore. But don't worry about that, Flan. Now it's our time. We don't need to worry about the past anymore. What happened, happened, and what's important is I got you back, and you have learned to control your powers."

Flandre extends her arms and gives her sister a powerful hug, cracking her bones as she squeezes her, then Remilia grunts "well, at least to some degree..."

Flandre lets Remilia go and says "oops. Sorry onee-sama."

Remilia rubs her back as she straightens herself again while still sitting on the bed, then the two sister stay quiet and stare at their feet handing form the bed.

Remilia breaks the silence when she suddenly looks at Flandre and says "hey, Flan, I'm curious."

Flandre looks at Remilia with curiosity, then Remilia asks "I've only seen you chase after Marisa and give her those powerful hugs and you're always so happy when you see her. Tell me, why did you call Reimu 'mom', and not chase after Marisa, as I thought you would?"

Flandre blushes and says "well... Red and white sis kept her promise, onee-sama. She came to visit me every time she came by, and even to this day, when she comes here, she stops by for a moment to check on me."

Remilia stares at Flandre with surprise and says to herself "so that's what she was doing."

Flandre continues "I like Marisa, but she doesn't like me that much. But I have to admit, I love hunting her down and messing with her."

Remilia and Flandre stare at each other for a moment, then start to laugh heartily, remembering how often Marisa ended up with a sore back after her encounters with Flandre, or the terrorized face she makes whenever Flandre jumps at her to give her a good hug-tackle.

Remilia suddenly sighs, then says "you know, things changed a bit when Patchy came along, but it was after Sakuya came that things really changed around here."

Flandre smiles and chuckles, then asks "but why must she be so strict? Really, she still scares me to this day!"

Remilia responds in a matter-of-factly tone, raising her hand and saying "she wants to make you a lady, Flan."

Flandre's lips wriggle after she hears that, then Remilia suddenly looks surprised and stares at the back of her right hand.

A dim glow from under her skin reveals the symbol of a hand watch.

Remilia gasps and jumps out of the bead, heading straight to the silver door as she shouts "Sakuya's in danger, Flan!"

Flandre stays on her bed and watches as her sister leaves the door open after running out.

Remilia comes back to the room and lifts her hand to Flandre, saying "come on Flan! When Sakuya's in danger, it must be something big! Will you help me? Flan?"

Flandre Stares at Remilia's hand without showing any expression at all, frightening Remilia a bit, then suddenly giggles, jumps from her bed and grabs Remilia's hand.

As the two vampire sisters rush to the foyer, Flandre says "I'll be with onee-sama from now on, so you don't have to worry!"

Remilia smiles and says "I am very glad to hear that Flan. I may not seem to care, but I really do. It makes me very happy to be with my entire family once more."

* * *

The End

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Game dialogue by ZUN (credit to the translators as well)

AUG 14 2010

Written by

Willie G.R.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.**

**And here, finally, the end of the back story. Although I did try to go as canonically accurate as possible, I did add a few things from what I think may have happened. Yes, I know that to some of you, these look like what some doujin depict as the SDM's back story too, and yes, I used some mental images from those to create a few of the scenes, however I did this by myself, and honestly, I only remember brief parts of said doujins. For example, Remilia's pledge to Reimu sounds the same as the one used in Fli-Flop's manga, but that's because she really did use those words when asking Reimu for that full-powered battle. To this date, Remilia keeps her word to Reimu, and being the vampire she is, she's going to keep to her word. As for Flandre, it was after Reimu dealt with her that the little destructive vampire opened up a bit more. Sadly, Flandre is still not fully recovered in canon, and that's a real shame, seeing as she has so many fans, and so much potential for future games (IMO). Then again, it's not as bad as the PC-98 characters people love so much, like Mima, Yuki and Shinki (three of my favorites). Anyway, thank you very much for reading and leaving so many reviews/comments, and I am very glad to know you enjoyed reading these. Of course, comments/reviews are still welcome. Oh yes, do have fun playing Fairy Wars. Hope is not TOO hair-splitting frustrating. Anyway, thanks again for reading, take care, and see you on my next project.

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**Confession time:**

**I know I said the ONLY thing connecting this to my Sukima series was the very beginning and very end, right? Well there are two things I used, and will use, from the series and spin-offs. First, the black book titled "Ancient Arcane Spells", is the same book Marisa finds at the end of the fourth chapter of the "Flashback of the Ages" spin-off, though in there, it's changed its name to "Ancient Arcane Spells of the Sirians". There is also the nekomata called "Azzhara" (which is pronounced "Atz-hara"). I'll be using this character in a future project. Also, my reason for focusing on the SDM... well I just love this cast. No matter what, they are WIN to me... all of them. Guess that's it. You all take care.**


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